Julia Child's Best-Ever Brownies
Master Chef and teacher Julia Child, who would have been 100 today, is famous for complicated French dishes such as her six-page cassoulet recipe, but one of her favorite sweets was a straight-forward, all-American brownie. Developed for the cookbook Baking with Julia, these decadent confections have a deep chocolate flavor and cakey texture that firms up and gets chewy if refrigerated. Bon appétit!
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Julia's Best-Ever Brownies (adapted from 'Baking with Julia' with Dorie Greenspan)
Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
8 ounces unsalted butter
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
4 large eggs, room temperature
Directions:
1. Put a rack in the center of the oven and pre-heat to 350 degrees.
2. Sift together the flour and salt; set aside.
3. Melt the butter and all of the chocolate together the in the microwave in a large bowl.
4. Add one cup of the sugar to the chocolate-butter mixture and stir for 30 seconds. Stir in the vanilla.
5. Mix the remaining sugar and the four eggs in an electric mixer bowl for a few seconds until just combined.
7. Little by little, pour half of the sugar-egg mixture into the chocolate mixture, stirring gently but constantly with a rubber spatula so that the eggs don't set from the heat.
8. Whip the remaining sugar and eggs in the electric mixer until they are thick, pale, and doubled in volume, about three minutes.
9. Using the rubber spatula, gently fold the whipped eggs into the chocolate mixture.
10. When the eggs are almost completely incorporated, gently fold in the dry ingredients.
11. Pour and scrape the batter into an unbuttered 9-inch square baking pan.
12. Bake the brownies for 22-26 minutes, they should rise a little and the top will look dark and dry.
13. Make a small cut in the the center of the brownies after about 22 minutes to check for doneness. They'll be perfect if they are just barely set and still gooey.
14. Remove from oven and cool in the pan on a rack before cutting.
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