February Chocolate Recipe: Fudgy Brownies

What other food or theme could you have in February other than chocolate?! When the "Valentine edition" of KAF email came through and I saw the pictures of their Fudge Brownies, I KNEW, this was the recipe I was going to make for February! The reviews on KAF's website were extremely positive, so I figured I would make them and bring them to my sister-in-laws. Yummy!


Fudgy Brownies

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

Directions:
1) Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 9" x 13" pan.
2) 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.
3) While the sugar heats a second time, crack the 4 eggs into a bowl, and beat them with the cocoa, salt, baking powder, espresso powder, and vanilla till smooth.
4) Add the hot butter/sugar mixture, stirring until smooth.
5) Add the flour and chips, again stirring until smooth. Note: If you want the chips to remain intact in the baked brownies, rather than melting in, let the batter cool in the bowl for about 20 minutes before stirring in the chips.
6) Spoon the batter into a lightly greased 9" x 13" pan.
7) Bake the brownies for about 35 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.

Review: I actually have to say that these are the best brownies I have ever had! I don't usually make brownies from scratch (don't honestly see the point, after the box comes out perfectly every time!), but I think these brownies will be enough to sway me if I have the time to make them. A few things I changed or amended. Original cook time was 30 minutes. Per other reviewers on KAF's website, they all said 35 worked better for them and I agree. I also poured half of the chocolate chips into the hot batter and let them melt (and mixed) and then waited and poured in the other half, so there were some chips to eat as well. I really liked this and could easily have done the full amount of chips once the mixture cooled down for more chips in each bite. These really were fab brownies and I encourage all to try them!!