brownies for a birthday boy

This weekend, there was a brownie lover in my midst. It was my sister's boyfriend, and we were all together to celebrate my mom's birthday. But as it turns out, the brownie lover would be celebrating his birthday soon, so at the last minute I was informed that we would be celebrating two birthdays at once. With my limited financial resources, I thought it wise to stay home and make his gift than hopping in my car to go buy something (which, feeling the way I was after my 15-mile run, seemed like a bad idea for me and everyone else on the road).

Now, I know the point of this blog is to post new recipes. And if you know me at all, you'll know that I am not a stranger to homemade brownies. In fact, I spent the better part of my college years baking them for various occasions: new roomies, finals, birthdays, welcome back from your semester abroad, etc. In those days, I was uberloyal to Mollie Katzen's recipe in the original Moosewood Cookbook. But looking at it now, I'm not so in love as I once was. It seems really . . . complicated. In comparison, How to Cook Everything was still on my kitchen table, and its brownie recipe seemed ridiculously simple. Plus, I'm running low on flour, and HtCE calls for just one half cup. Bittman 1, Katzen 0.

Danny's birthday brownies
Adapted from How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman
Yield: MB says 1 to 2 dozen. I say, are you serious?! I came out with nine. Granted, they were big, birthday-sized brownies, but still . . . you will get 1 to 2 dozen brownies only if they are very small
Time: 40 minutes

2 oz. unsweetened chocolate, roughly chopped*
8 Tbps. (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened, plus a little for greasing the pan
1 c. sugar*
2 eggs
1/2 c. all-purpose flour
Pinch salt
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 c. chopped toasted almonds
1/2 c. chocolate chips

*soooooo, I realized almost too late that I was using grain-sweetened chocolate chips, which are sweet but not very. I knew I'd probably want to add sugar, but I wasn't sure how much, so I nervously added some little by little, tasting the mixture a few times and worrying that the end result would either be shockingly sweet or taste like chocolate-laced cardboard. I guess I ended up adding 1/4 to 1/3 cup, but I don't know for sure!

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line an 8-inch square baking pan with aluminum foil, and butter the foil.

2. Combine chocolate and butter in small saucepan over very low heat, stirring occasionally. When chocolate is just about melted, remove from heat and continue stirring until mixture is smooth.

3. Transfer chocolate mixture to a medium bowl and stir in sugar. Then beat in eggs, one at a time. Gently stir in flour, salt and vanilla. Then stir in almonds and chocolate chips.

4. Pour and scrape into prepared pan, and bake 20 to 25 minutes, or until just set in the middle. It's better to underbake than to overbake them. Cool on a rack before cutting. Store, covered and at room temperature, for no more than a day.