My mother-in-law was the first person I knew to make brownies from scratch. I was a committed brownie-from-the-box kinda gal, though I hadn’t made them in forever because I’d just about eat the whole pan any time I did. I LOVE brownies. They’re one of the few things I find very hard to resist…unless they’re cakey. *shudder* If I want something cakey and chocolatey, I’ll make chocolate cake. Cakey brownies are just plain wrong.
But my mother-in-law’s brownies were good. Thick and rich, crystals of sugar crunching with every bite. She was kind enough to give me her recipe and I made them for years. But then I stumbled upon a cocoa brownie recipe in Alice Medrich’s spectacular cookbook Bittersweet that is super chewy and chocolatey, like an improved, homemade version of boxed brownies, and I fell for it. New favorite added to the rotation.
That is, until a couple of years ago when I came across a Guinness brownie recipe that promised to be chewy and intensely chocolatey thanks to the beer, checking off ALL of my brownie requirements. New NEW favorite. (I am NOT brownie-recipe fickle, why would you even think that?)
Since St. Patrick’s Day is coming up soon, I figured it was the PERFECT time to roll out this recipe. Not to mention the fact that I FINALLY perfected it a few weeks ago and can’t stand to keep it to myself any longer. (Some recipes simply MUST be shared, you know?)
These are, hands down, my favorite brownies. (I mean, for now, obviously.) Though there is nothing fancy about them, in their simplicity they are brownie nirvana—deep, rich, intense chocolatey chewy heaven. These brownies—THESE brownies—they are everything a brownie is supposed to be, everything a brownie DREAMS of being. (You know, if brownies could dream. Which they might. You don’t know.)
The first time I made them, I was a bit skeptical because the batter is nothing like regular brownie batter. It’s fluffy, for Pete’s sake. I remember posting a photo of it on Twitter with a hope that this strange batter would magically turn into brownies while in the oven.
Oh boy, did it. A beautiful, thin flaky-crust topped brownie that was soooooooooo chocolatey and chewy underneath. I took some over to my friend Sandra’s house and made everyone in her family try them. I piled them into ziplock bags and tossed them in the freezer—from where we’d pull out frozen ones that were still perfectly chewy enough to eat without thawing.
But the recipe wasn’t quite perfect. Yet.
The original recipe didn’t call for salt, which was the first problem. Let’s talk about salt for a moment, shall we? Salt is essential in sweet treats. Why? Because it actually enhances the flavor, makes it fuller, rounder, more three-dimensional. It increases our sense of sweet while at the same time suppressing our sense of bitterness. Baked goods taste better when you add a little bit of salt.
The other major problem was that the brownies were a bit too oily, and that bugged me. Enter some tweaking here and there, plus the addition of ground flax seeds and walnuts to up the nutritional value and flavor…because you know that’s how I am.
And, voila, PERFECT brownie recipe. I kid you not, my friends. These brownies are OMGDELICIOUS. In fact, the new recipe is SO good, I had to keep trying them to make sure they really were as incredible as I thought. (They were. Though I might have to make some more today just to be extra EXTRA sure.)
Ingredients
- 8 ounces semi- or bittersweet chocolate chips (1 1/3 cups)
- 1 cup butter
- 3 cups sugar
- 1/2 cup dark beer or coffee (Guinness, Sam Adams Chocolate Bock, or any other dark beer)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 4 eggs
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1 cup whole wheat flour (or you can substitute with more all-purpose)
- 2 tablespoons corn starch
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt (double if using unsalted butter; use half as much if using table salt)
- 6 tablespoons cocoa
- 1/4 cup ground flax seeds (optional, but adds great nutritional value)
- 1/2 cup ground walnuts (optional, but adds great nutritional value)
- 10 ounces semi- or bittersweet chocolate chips (1 2/3 cups)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F/ 177 C. Line a 18 x 13 jelly roll pan with parchment and lightly spray with oil.
- Melt 8 oz of dark chocolate either in a double boiler or in the microwave (50% power for 2 minutes, stir, run for another minute, stir. If there are just a few lumps, let it sit and the heat of the melted chocolate will melt the rest. Remember to not let it sit in the closed microwave after it stops running, because moisture/water makes melted chocolate seize up). Set aside.
- Whip butter and sugar until fluffy. Add beer, vanilla, and eggs. Mix until well blended, then stream in melted chocolate.
- Add in dry ingredients: flour, corn starch, salt, cocoa, flax seeds, and walnuts. Mix well, then add in remaining 10 oz chocolate chips.
- Spread evenly into prepared baking pan. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Don't overbake!
- Cool in the pan for 30-60 minutes, until it has solidified enough to be lifted out of pan by the parchment to sit on a cooling rack. Cool completely before cutting (if you can wait that long--no one will judge you if you can't). A pizza cutter works beautifully for cutting these into 48 squares. They'll keep in an airtight container, but you can better preserve their freshness by sticking them in a zip-top freezer bag and storing them in the freezer.
Notes
This recipe can be made gluten free by using a gluten-free 1-to-1 baking flour in place of the wheat flour, and substituting in gluten-free beer. Recipe heavily adapted from Guinness Brownies.