My new favorite, Perfect Brownies

** This post was imported as a part of my top 30 from my old blog – What’s Cooking in the Orange Kitchen**

A few weeks ago I had a baking mishap with my normal brownie recipe and I didn’t have enough chocolate to make the recipe over again. I was making the brownies for someone else so I had to come up with something. I had cocoa powder but I didn’t want to make the Hershey recipe. After looking around on the Internet I finally remembered there was a recipe on the back of my King Arthur all-purpose flour bag. The recipe worked with the ingredients that I had so I went for it. I am so glad I tried it! These Perfect Brownies had a great texture and flavor. I liked that they weren’t too gooey (since I was cutting them and plating them for some one else) but they also weren’t cake like either. It was a perfect combination. Give it a try and I promise you won’t be disappointed

Perfect Brownies (that’s my title for them ;))

Ingredients
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
2 1/4 cups sugar
1 1/4 cups Dutch-process cocoa
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp espresso powder, optional
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
4 large eggs
1 1/2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
2 cups chocolate chips (I omitted these)

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 9″ x 13″ pan

In a medium-sized microwave-safe bowl, or in a saucepan set over low heat, melt the butter, then add the sugar and stir to combine. Return the mixture to the heat (or microwave) briefly, just until it’s hot (about 110°F to 120°F), but not bubbling; it’ll become shiny looking as you stir it. Heating this mixture a second time will dissolve more of the sugar, which will yield a shiny top crust on your brownies. * This was such an awesome tip. I had never done that before but it really worked!

Transfer the sugar mixture to a medium-sized mixing bowl, if you’ve heated it in a saucepan. Stir in the cocoa, salt, baking powder, espresso powder, and vanilla.

Whisk in the eggs, stirring until smooth.

Add the flour and chips, again stirring until smooth.

Spoon the batter into a lightly greased 9″ x 13″ pan.

Bake the brownies for about 30 minutes, until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean, or with just a few moist crumbs clinging to it. The brownies should feel set on the edges, and the center should look very moist, but not uncooked. Remove them from the oven and cool on a rack before cutting and serving.

Source: King Arthur Flour