brownies

I don’t fancy myself “picky.” Instead, I prefer “particular.”

How, you wonder? Well, for one, I am particular about the texture of my brownies.

Many times, I feel that brownies don’t hit that perfect brownie pitch; they either stray into the dangerous territory of being too cake-like or they are just one step away from fudge.

 If I may be particular, I like my brownies to be brownies.

In trying to find that perfect middle ground, I went through dozens of recipes, comparing the ratios of butter, chocolate, flour, and eggs. After all of my searching, I can say one thing with relative certainty: Brownie recipes are largely very similar.

Another thing I can say with certainty: Most of the recipes I saw evidenced a wide-spread obsession with gooey, fudge-like brownies.

Call me particular. Hell, call me picky. I’m not jumping on that bandwagon. Nope. Not me.

Instead, I tweaked the basic, across-the-board ratios to try to get a brownie that complied with my particular tastes.

Because I’m picky a bad ass particular. And I pretty much do what I want.

I used cake flour instead of all-purpose (to reduce the gluten), used more flour and leavener than most recipes, and baked it until completely done.

I really love the way these turned out. I sent them to my Dad for Father’s Day. From all accounts, he likes the way they turned out, too.

Score one for the particular picky home bakers.

Brownies

Ingredients

1 ½ cups cake flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1 ½ sticks of butter (12 tablespoons), cut into cubes

6 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped

2 ¼ cups granulated sugar

4 eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.

Line a 9 by 13 inch pan with foil, leaving some foil hanging over the edges of the pan (to assist with lifting the brownies out of the pan later.) Grease the foil-lined baking pan for extra insurance.

Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Whisk together to combine and disburse the baking powder evenly.

Melt butter and chocolate in a glass bowl that is put on top of a saucepan of simmering water, creating a double boiler. Stir until completely melted and smooth.

Once chocolate and butter have become completely smooth, take glass bowl off of the saucepan. Add in sugar, fully incorporating into the butter and chocolate mixture.

Then add in eggs, one at a time, with a whisk, combining thoroughly. Once all 4 eggs have been combined, add the vanilla extract.

Next, fold in the flour mixture a little at a time until combined. (I added the flour in 4 equal parts, gently folding flour into the wet ingredients with a rubber spatula.)

When all ingredients are completely combined, pour into the baking dish and use the spatula to make sure the brownie batter is evenly spread out.

Bake in the oven at 325 for 25-30 minutes.

When cool, use the extra hanging foil to pull the brownies out of the pan with relative ease. Cut and serve. (Or ship to a happy Dad.)