artpark brownies

I was reading Ruth Reichl's memoir, Tender at the Bone, when I got to this recipe. I mentioned brownies and all my roommates perked up. Luckily I live around the block from a 24-hr QFC, and good chocolate can be had at all hours of the night. Sometimes I wonder what the checkout people think of me, in my pajamas at 1am, buying two dozen eggs, heavy whipping cream, milk, 5 lbs of sugar, and 10 oz of the best unsweetened chocolate. (This, by the way, is what an ice-cream-making-kick and baking fetish does to your shopping lists.)

By the time the brownies came out of the oven, my roommates had gone to bed, and I decided to go to bed before the brownies had cooled enough to eat (sadly, brownies are better after they cool). The upshot of this: brownies for breakfast!

Artpark Brownies
from Tender at the Bone
makes 12 brownies

2/3 cup butter
5 ounces unsweetened, best-quality French chocolate (I used German. Don't tell the French.)
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups sugar
1 cup sifted flour (sift flour into 1-cup measure until heaping, then level with a flat object.)

Preheat oven to 400.

Butter and flour a 9" square baking pan (I used an 8" pan and added 7 minutes to the baking time.)

Melt butter and chocolate in double boiler, over boiling water. When melted, add vanilla and set aside.

Beat eggs and salt in mixer. Add sugar and beat at high speed for about ten minutes, or until mixture is quite white. (If you have a kitchenaid and use the middle speeds, this will not take ten minutes.)

Add chocolate and butter mixture and beat at low speed, just until mixed. Add flour and combine quickly, until there are no white streaks. (Do not overmix.)

Pour batter into pan and put into oven. Immediately turn oven down to 350 and bake for 40 minutes. The normal toothpick test will not work on these brownies, but if you want to try pricking them with a toothpick, it should not come out quite clean. Do not overbake; these brownies should be fudgy.