Fudge Brownies from Scratch

Sharon encouraged me to try something new. She found a fudge brownie recipe in the King Arthur Cookie Companion Cookbook.

The main thing that was different in this recipe from approaches I recall using before is melting the butter (3/4 cup) and sugar (2 cups) together in advance.

The recipe called for melting the butter, then adding the sugar and bringing just to 110 to 120 degrees. Yeah. I didn't read that part right. So I had the sugar and butter in the pan together and by the time I checked the temp it was up to 157 degrees. Still seemed to work. The claim is that this helps get a shine to the top of the finished brownie. That seemed to happen.

For the record: it would have been easier to melt the butter first. What I wonder about is what would happen if we caramelize all or part of the butter/sugar mixture?

Add the cocoa (1 cup), salt (1 tsp), and baking powder (1/2 tsp).

Then three eggs and vanilla (1 Tbs).

The recipe called for a cup of nuts, flower, and chocolate chips. Sharon expressed a hope for no-nuts. I suspected it was the texture of chunks of nuts she was not wanting. So I used about 2/3 cup of hazelnut meal and 1/3 cup of almond meal. There were no complaints, and I think it added to the richness of the finished product.

For the flour I used whole wheat pastry flour.

In the end, I was very happy with the result: chewy, tasty, rich brownies.