Meatless Monday: Brownies

On Thursday Chad scurried to my work from his mountain biking class, picked me up, drove home, dropped me off and then sped back to school for his Japanese class at 5:15. Since he's running around like a crazy person I try to have dinner made for him when he gets home, and not pass out on the couch until Rukia wakes me up announcing that dad's home. Because that never happens.

On this particular Thursday we had nothing to make for dinner. Seriously. We didn't buy groceries for the week and had managed pretty good so far, but I just couldn't handle eating another salad for dinner. We didn't even have bread for PB&J, things were looking grim.

Chad and I love brownies. L-O-V-E. We have our favorite, right out of a box. They are awesome! We haven't tried a recipe yet that even compares to these lovelies. We have been on the hunt though.

I decided that Thursday would be a great time to try out another recipe, hopefully it would be wonderful and distract from the lack of dinner. Much to our surprise, they were! They weren't dry, or tasteless or crumbly, they were lovely. They were quick and easy, and really are The Best Brownies. Don't you just love when you find an awesome recipe on someones blog!? I feel like it's a green flag to the rest of their recipes, letting me know that all the recipes they post will be something amazing and delicious. I can't wait to try out more recipes from Everyday Reading!

Photo courtesy of everydayreading.com

The Best Brownies

 

(from everydayreading.com) 

 

Makes one 9x9 pan

 

Ingredients:

 

• 2 ounces unsweetened chocolate
• 4 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate
• 10 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 3 eggs
• 2/3 cup flour (I always use white-wheat, as if that makes them at all healthy)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Directions:

 

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line a 9x9 baking sheet with tin foil (with enough overhang on two edges that you can pull the brownies out after baking) and spray with cooking spray.
2. Melt chocolate and butter in large-ish saucepan over medium-low heat until completely smooth, stirring very frequently to keep from burning.
3. Remove from heat and whisk in sugar and vanilla.
4. Add the eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each one before adding the next. Whisk until mixture is completely smooth.
5. Add dry ingredients (with the salt and baking powder on top of the flour), and stir until well combined.
6. Pour batter into prepared pan; bake until a toothpick or cake tester inserted in center comes out with wet crumbs, 35-45 minutes (it's always 35 minutes for me).
7. Cool brownies in pan on a wire rack for five minutes. Use foil handles to pull brownies from pan. Cool on wire rack for at least 15 minutes.
8. Cut into 16 squares and serve warm or at room temperature.

As a side note, it's Monday morning and an old confused lady has already attempted to punch me in the face. Hopefully your Monday is shaping up slightly better. If not, make these brownies tonight!