Chill-Out Brownies

Chill-Out Brownies, adapted minimally from the “New Classic Brownies”, in Alice Medrich’s Cookie and Brownies

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Ingredients

• 8 tablespoons (4 ounces, one stick, or 110 grams) butter, salted or unsalted
• 4 ounces (110 grams) unsweetened chocolate, roughly chopped
• 1 ¼ cup (10 ounces or 280 grams) sugar
• 1 teaspoon (5 ML) vanilla extract
• ¼ (1.25 ML) teaspoon salt (can be omitted if using salted butter)
• 2 eggs, at room temperature (preferably free-range organic, from happy chickens)
• ½ cup (2 ounces or 100 grams) all-purpose flour
• 2/3 cup (70 grams) pecans, walnuts, or hazelnuts, chopped – optional but the counterpoint is wonderful if you are a nutty-brownie type

Directions

1. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees F (200 C or Gas Mark 6), with the oven rack at bottom-third position.
2. Line 8” x 8” (15 cm) square metal pan with parchment paper or reuseable non-stick 8” square sheet.
3. Melt butter and chocolate in microwave at 50% strength, at 30 second instalments, or until chocolate is almost melted; or melt the two in the top of a double boiler over simmering water, remove from stove top when just melted.
4. Add sugar, salt, and vanilla to chocolate-butter, mixing thoroughly.
5. Add eggs, one at a time, until fully incorporated, into the chocolate-butter-sugar
6. Blend flour into wet ingredients, until just combined – do not over-mix.
7. Fold in nuts gently, if using.
8. Spread batter into prepared pan and place in oven.
9. Bake for 20 minutes.
10. In the meantime, add ice cubes to the bottom of a 9” square pan (23 cm) or larger pan and fill half-way up with cold water.
11. Remove pan from oven and place into ice-water bath immediately, ensuring that no water splashes over the pan onto the brownies.
12. When fully cooled, take knife (or non-metallic spatula or knife, if using a non-stick pan) and insert around the four inner vertical edges carefully, just to loosen brownies.
13. Remove the brownie slab from the pan, peel off parchment paper, and place on board to cut into 16 squares (2” x 2” or 5 cm x 5 cm).
14. Eat and chill-out.