TWD: French Chocolate Brownies

It is rare that I make brownies from scratch. Box mixes are just so easy, inexpensive, and usually taste good enough (especially when you sprinkle with Andes mints!) But I was excited to see that Di’s Kitchen Notebook chose this recipe for Tuesdays With Dorie because I was hoping for a simple recipe that would not take much time but would still yield a delicious dessert. This recipe was definitely quick to mix up, especially since I skipped the flaming raisins and opted for raspberries instead. Tyler and I love the combination of chocolate and raspberries and I’d been in search for the perfect chocolate raspberry brownie recipe for awhile now. This one that I tried last year was good but almost too rich. Dorie’s brownies are more cake like, and will fall apart in your hands so I recommend eating with a fork (and with a glass of milk!) They are not too dense or too fluffy, kind of hard to explain but they are in-between You could make a pretty amazing brownie sundae with these brownies, and I think the possibilities for add-ins are limitless, just throw in a little of whatever you like, be it raisins, nuts, blueberries, Andes mints, etc. Tyler rated these an 8 out of 10.

French Chocolate Brownies (Adapted from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking From My Home to Yours)
- makes 16 brownies -

Ingredients:

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 1/2 sticks (12 tablespoons; 6 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature and cut into 12 pieces
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup sugar

1/3 cup raisins, dark or golden (omitted)
1 1/2 tablespoons water (omitted)
1 1/2 tablespoons dark rum (omitted)

Instead of raisins I used half a bag of frozen raspberries (thawed) but I did not soak them in water or set them on fire, I just defrosted them and stirred them in before I poured the batter into the pan.

Getting ready: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 300°F. Line an 8-inch square baking pan with foil, butter the foil, place the pan on a baking sheet, and set aside.

Whisk together the flour, salt and cinnamon, if you’re using it.

Put the raisins in a small saucepan with the water, bring to a boil over medium heat and cook until the water almost evaporates. Add the rum, let it warm for about 30 seconds, turn off the heat, stand back and ignite the rum. Allow the flames to die down, and set the raisins aside until needed.

Put the chocolate in a heatproof bowl and set the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Slowly and gently melt the chocolate, stirring occasionally. Remove the bowl from the saucepan and add the butter, stirring so that it melts. It’s important that the chocolate and butter not get very hot. However, if the butter is not melting, you can put the bowl back over the still-hot water for a minute. If you’ve got a couple of little bits of unmelted butter, leave them—it’s better to have a few bits than to overheat the whole. Set the chocolate aside for the moment.

Working with a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the eggs and sugar until they are thick and pale, about 2 minutes. Lower the mixer speed and pour in the chocolate-butter, mixing only until it is incorporated—you’ll have a thick, creamy batter. Add the dry ingredients and mix at low speed for about 30 seconds—the dry ingredients won’t be completely incorporated and that’s fine. Finish folding in the dry ingredients by hand with a rubber spatula, then fold in the raisins along with any liquid remaining in the pan.

Scrape the batter into the pan and bake 50 to 60 minutes, or until the top is dry and crackled and a knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack and allow the brownies to cool to warm or room temperature.

Carefully lift the brownies out of the pan, using the foil edges as handles, and transfer to a cutting board. With a long-bladed knife, cut the brownies into 16 squares, each roughly 2 inches on a side, taking care not to cut through the foil.

Serving: The brownies are good just warm or at room temperature; they’re even fine cold. I like these with a little something on top or alongside—good go-alongs are whipped crème fraiche or whipped cream, ice cream or chocolate sauce or even all three!

Storing: Wrapped well, these can be kept at room temperature for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 2 months.

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