Food on Fridays: One-Bowl Brownies

Join the Food on Fridays carnival–any post related to the topic of food is welcome!

To participate, write up a post (borrow Mr. Broccoli-Button, if you like), publish, then pop over here and click on Mr. Linky below. A screen will pop up where you can type in your name and paste in the url to your own Food on Fridays post (give us the exact link to your Food on Fridays page, not just the link to your blog).

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Food on Fridays Participants

1. Ship Full O’ Pirates (Cheese-y Garlicky Biscuits)
2. Stretch Mark Mama (Quesa-Pizzas)
3. Newlyweds (Mardi Gras King’s Cake)
4. Homemade and Wholesome (Soup vs. V8)
5. Like Mother, Like Daughter (Bland Diet & Tray Meals–inspired by flu season)
6. thebyrdhouse (sweet potato fries)
7. Tuesday Afternoons (Cajun Chicken Fettuccine)

Food on Fridays with Ann

[Updated with photos--scroll down!]

Have you noticed my chocolate trend?

Last week, it was Absurdly Easy Chocolate Cake. I’ve also posted about Chocolate Gravy, and of course there’s my ongoing Nutella-mania. Even Chocolate-Chip Pumpkin Bread (or “Pumpkin Chocolate-Chip Bread,” depending on what you want to emphasize) contains chocolate.

Well, here’s yet another dose of chocolate.

One-Bowl Brownies

4 squares unsweetened chocolate

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter or marg.

2 cups sugar

3 eggs

1 teas. vanilla

1 cup flour

1 cup chopped nuts or chocolate chips or white chocolate chips (optional, but we really like the white chocolate chips)

Preheat to 325 degrees.

Melt chocolate and margarine/butter in microwaveable bowl on high 2 mins or until butter is melted. Stir until chocolate is completely melted.

Stir sugar into chocolate until well blended. Mix in eggs and vanilla. Stir in flour and nuts until well blended. Spread in greased, foil-lined (I just spray with Pam and forget the foil) 12×9 inch baking pan.

Bake 30-35 mins (or until toothpick comes out clean). DO NOT OVERBAKE.

(source: Baker’s unsweetened chocolate box)

Do not overbake. Do not modify this recipe to try to make it healthier. Use all the eggs. All the sugar. All the butter. If you’ve got the chocolate chips, put ‘em in.

And then…prepare to swoon.

(To clarify, the ecstatic swooning would be a reaction to the taste, not the calories or fat content.)

Updated with sort of step-by-step shots, mostly for entertainment rather than instruction. Final snapshot is swoon-worthy; prepare the fainting couch.

It starts with unsweetened chocolate. Usually I use Baker’s, who kindly provided me with the recipe. This time I’m using Trader Joe’s Belgian chocolate, because we like to think we’re kind of Belgian-y around here. And the wrapper was very appealing with the vintage, foreign postage stamp design.

Then the butter (we only use butter–no margarine for Belgian-y Kroekers) and chocolate go into the microwave for a minute or a minute-and-a-half. It melts. You stir. It smells divine. The kids start to show up in the kitchen. “Whatcha makin’, Mom?”

Stir in two cups of sugar. It sure looks like a lot of sugar. Try not to panic.

And here, the brownies offer us a little Rorschach fun–in reverse, white-on-black.

Don’t forget the chocolate chips. We didn’t have white. Sigh. It was a little disappointing, but we didn’t let it stop us.

A very important step and perhaps the reason I’m partial to baking over cooking.

And finally, step away from your keyboard–don’t want to be responsible for any short circuiting caused by a stream of drool.

Please note their super-rich, mega-moist texture and the melty chocolate chip oozing from the back brownie.

I’ll write about lentils or pumpkin soup later. For now, let’s just all sit back and take in the chocolate-y goodness.