CHOCOLATE FUDGE BROWNIES


I'm not a brownie expert. I don't even particularly like them. I tried making the recipe on the back of the Baker's Chocolate once and it was a disaster, thereafter I've always figured there were more interesting things to bake.

The hazard of buying your children books is that they ask questions. Danny has an oversized children's cookbook in Spanish (the idea is to help them put the language skills to use making something).

Danny: (pointing to photograph) What are those?
Mama: Brownies. They're a type of cake.
Danny: (Interested) Chocolate cake? (His voice goes up a bit when he's excited)
Mama: (sighing) Yes.
Danny: Mama will make brownies for Danny. (Note, he made it a declarative sentence, not a question).

Only problem of course is that I don't really know how to make brownies, and my Spanish isn't good enough to follow the recipe in his book. My first impulse was to go heat some egg yolks over a double boiler and then whip them…I stopped myself. Look, the kid asked for brownies, not a bloody gateau.

I found the following recipe in the American Heritage Cookbook. I omitted the nuts and it still turned out fine.

You Will Need:

4 oz. Unsweetened chocolate
½ cup butter
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
1-cup flour
1-teaspoon vanilla
1 cup chopped nuts, optional


Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9x13 pan. Melt the chocolate and butter together over low heat (or use a double boiler if you're really inept with melting chocolate-some people are). Cool. Add vanilla. Beat the eggs until very light and of a marshmallow consistency. Slowly add the sugar as you go. Fold the chocolate/butter into the eggs. Then fold in the flour. Add nuts if desired. Pour into pan and bake 30 minutes.