I think these brownies are the thing that started all the buzz surrounding this bakery, and by extension, this book. Oprah made them one of her “favorite things,” and America’s Test Kitchen and the Today Show awarded these brownies top honors (brownie tester – now there’s a job I could get behind). How could I not make this recipe?

Was I wowed? Blown out of the water? Made to feel insignificant and puny? No. In fact, I really hated these brownies. Hated them. Not the recipe (easy to follow). Not the flavor (deep and chocolatey). Not the texture (moist and fudgy). No, I hated these brownies because I couldn’t get them to cut cleanly. If you look closely at the picture, you’ll see all the ragged edges and the chunks gouged out of the sides.

Stupid brownies.

Nitpicking aside, these brownies are pretty good, and I liked them better as they aged. The recipe is straightforward, calling for flour, cocoa powder, dark chocolate, butter, sugar and eggs. Instant espresso powder and vanilla give the chocolate some depth. Everything is mixed by hand, and the only tricky part is not overbaking these brownies. Next time I make these, I’ll line the pan with parchment and refrigerate the brownies before cutting them.

“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.

At pretty young ages, my sister and I figured out that we preferred our brownies only mostly done. We had a microwave recipe that became our specialty. The edges were chewy in a microwave-baked sort of way, but the middle was best eaten with a spoon. These days, I still prefer a fudgy brownie over a cakey brownie, but even for me, these brownies weren’t cooked enough.

I had high hopes for this recipe. I mean, come on, peanut butter and chocolate? In a brownie? So I whipped up the batter, poured it into the pan and attempted to swirl it. According to the directions, you pour little over half the peanut butter batter in the bottom of the pan, top that with all of the chocolate batter and then dollop the remaining peanut butter batter on top and swirl everything together. Well, with less than half the peanut butter batter, I still ended up with too much peanut butter batter on top. Instead of getting swirls, I got another layer of peanut butter batter. I can live with that, although if I make this again, I’ll use most of the peanut butter batter on the bottom, instead of only half.

So into the oven. The brownies are supposed to bake for  30-40 minutes. I ended up baking them for about 55 minutes before a toothpick inserted into the middle came out with only a few moist crumbs attached. At that point the top layer was dangerously dark. The brownies had also risen in the pan almost all the way to the top, which I thought was strange. 

After cooling for about an hour, we cut into them and found that a thick top crust had separated and left nearly an inch of space between it and the rest of the brownies. Except for about an inch around the edges, the rest of the batter was so wet that it barely held together after cutting and couldn’t be picked up with one’s fingers.

Looking back over the recipe, here’s what I think happened: According to the directions, three eggs are beaten slightly and then added to the batter a tablespoon at a time and beaten, on medium speed, until each addition has been incorporated thoroughly. Now, according to Shirley O. Corriher in BakeWise, the more you beat eggs in a batter (brownies, cakes and cookies), the more of a separated crust you get on the finished item. Next time, I think I’ll try stirring in the eggs by hand to see if that prevents the crust from forming. I also think that will help the brownies bake more evenly.

The taste was okay. The brownies were quite rich and the peanut butter flavor came through pretty clearly. I think these have promise, but the recipe needs some tweaking.