Currently cooking out of Pure Dessert by Alice Medrich.
“Oh my.”
That was pretty much all I could think of when I bit into a square of these deep, dark chocolatey brownies. The texture was some where between cakey and fudgey, moist but not dense and crunchy from cacoa nibs. They were so good that Bryan and I had to get them out of the house before we ate them all.
In the recipe, Medrich specifically calls for a 70 percent chocolate. I only had about half the amount needed, so I made up the rest with a slightly sweeter chocolate (about 60 percent, I believe). I was worried that the brownies would be too sweet, since I was using sweeter chocolate, but it didn’t affect the final product. Now, that being said, I’m definitely going to make these again using all 70 percent chocolate.
Really, the only issue I had with the recipe was that I had to bake my brownies for a bit longer. I ended up baking them for about 45 minutes where as the recipe calls for 25-30 minutes. Minor. I’m also really loving the cacoa nibs. They add a nut-like texture, but without the nuts. The nibs, themselves, don’t seem to add much flavor. These are perfect for those who can’t eat nuts but want some of that texture in their baked goods.
Mmmmm, chocolate… It is my experience that finding a really good brownie is hard to do. These sound really yummy but I’m skeptical. (Does skepticism make you want to deliver?) I believe a taste testing is in order. Can we take them to the warm sunny place with the Pink Grapefruit Granitas? I would pay a great deal of money for a really good brownie right now. These look like they might fit the bill. Are you on your way?