Chocolate Chip Brownies

Chocolate Chip Brownies. Great plain or with frosting. (Photo Credit: Adroit Ideals)

Who doesn’t love brownies? Chewy chocolatey wonderful goodness. My favorite Chocolate Chip Brownies make a regular appearance at summer picnics and casual dinners. They’re also known to appear on my dessert table during the holidays.

Chocolate Chip Brownies.  Great plain or with frosting.  (Photo Credit: Adroit Ideals)
Chocolate Chip Brownies. Great plain or with frosting. (Photo Credit: Adroit Ideals)

This recipe uses powdered espresso for richness. Also, lots of butter and bittersweet chocolate. And I like to top them with a big smear of Nutella as a sort of “frosting.” Use regular semisweet chocolate chips, or mix it up with some white chocolate chips or even butterscotch chips or Reese’s peanut butter chips.

Chocolate Chip Brownies with Chocolate Sauce (Photo Credit: Adroit Ideals)
Chocolate Chip Brownies with Chocolate Sauce (Photo Credit: Adroit Ideals)

Start out with your favorite bittersweet chocolate. You can use the widely available Baker’s chocolate or find a fancier chocolate such as Ghirardelli.

Baker's offers a good bittersweet chocolate (Photo Credit: Adroit Ideals)
Baker’s offers a good bittersweet chocolate (Photo Credit: Adroit Ideals)
Ghirardelli makes a fancy bittersweet chocolate (Photo Credit: Adroit Ideals)
Ghirardelli makes a fancy bittersweet chocolate (Photo Credit: Adroit Ideals)

You’ll need to coarsely chop the chocolate and cut the butter into cubes for easy melting.

Chocolate and butter for the brownies (Photo Credit: Adroit Ideals)
Chocolate and butter for the brownies (Photo Credit: Adroit Ideals)

Melt the butter and chocolate in a double boiler over low heat until smooth.

Melt the butter with the chocolate over a double boiler on low heat (Photo Credit: Adroit Ideals)
Melt the butter with the chocolate over a double boiler on low heat (Photo Credit: Adroit Ideals)
The butter and chocolate have melted (Photo Credit: Adroit Ideals)
The butter and chocolate have melted (Photo Credit: Adroit Ideals)

Whisk together eggs, white and brown sugars, agave syrup and vanilla.

Four eggs in a bowl (Photo Credit: Adroit Ideals)
Four eggs in a bowl (Photo Credit: Adroit Ideals)
Whisk together the eggs, sugars, vanilla, and agave (Photo Credit: Adroit Ideals)
Whisk together the eggs, sugars, vanilla, and agave (Photo Credit: Adroit Ideals)

Add the chocolate mixture to the egg mixture and stir until smooth.

Stir the chocolate butter mixture into the sugary egg mixture (Photo Credit: Adroit Ideals)
Stir the chocolate butter mixture into the sugary egg mixture (Photo Credit: Adroit Ideals)

Stir together some flour and salt in a bowl.

Stir together the flour and salt (Photo Credit: Adroit Ideals)
Stir together the flour and salt (Photo Credit: Adroit Ideals)

Add the flour mixture to the chocolate mixture.

Mix the flour into the batter (Photo Credit: Adroit Ideals)
Mix the flour into the batter (Photo Credit: Adroit Ideals)

Stir in some chocolate chips.

Two kinds of chocolate chips -- dark chocolate and semisweet chocolate (Photo Credit: Adroit Ideals)
Two kinds of chocolate chips — dark chocolate and semisweet chocolate (Photo Credit: Adroit Ideals)
Add the chocolate chips to the batter (Photo Credit: Adroit Ideals)
Add the chocolate chips to the batter (Photo Credit: Adroit Ideals)

And pour the batter into a pan.

Brownie batter in the pan (Photo Credit: Adroit Ideals)
Brownie batter in the pan (Photo Credit: Adroit Ideals)

And bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 – 40 minutes depending on whether you like chewy or cakey brownies. Remove them from the oven and cool completely.

Brownies, baked and hot from the oven  (Photo Credit: Adroit Ideals)
Brownies, baked and hot from the oven (Photo Credit: Adroit Ideals)

When cool, remove from the pan, remove the parchment paper on the bottom, and slice into squares.

Slice the brownies into equal squares (Photo Credit: Adroit Ideals)
Slice the brownies into equal squares (Photo Credit: Adroit Ideals)
Chocolate chips aplenty in these brownies (Photo Credit: Adroit Ideals)
Chocolate chips aplenty in these brownies (Photo Credit: Adroit Ideals)

Add some Nutella or other chocolate frosting and devour!

Chocolate Chip Brownies made more decadent by a slathering of Nutella (Photo Credit: Adroit Ideals)
Chocolate Chip Brownies made more decadent by a slathering of Nutella (Photo Credit: Adroit Ideals)

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From the kitchen of A Food Lover’s Delight….

Chocolate Chip Brownies

Ingredients:

8 oz bittersweet or semisweet chocolate squares (or a combination), coarsely chopped
1 T powdered espresso
1 c unsalted butter (2 sticks), cut into 1 inch cubes
3/4 c all-purpose flour
1/2 t salt
1 c sugar
1/4 c brown sugar
2 T agave syrup
2 t vanilla
4 large eggs
1 c semisweet chocolate chips

Method:

1. Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Line a 9 inch square baking pan with parchment paper for ease of removal of the brownies after baking.
3. Melt chocolate, butter and espresso powder together over a double boiler over very low heat, stirring occasionally, until smooth.
4. Whisk together flour and salt in a small bowl.
5. In a large bowl, whisk sugars and agave syrup with the vanilla and eggs until just combined.
6. Slowly pour the chocolate mixture into the egg mixture, stirring slowly until combined well.
7. Whisk in the flour mixture, then stir in the chocolate chips.
8. Spread the batter in the baking pan.
9. Bake until top is shiny and set and sides have begun to pull away slightly (a wooden pick or skewer will not come out clean), about 30 minutes for fudgy brownies; or until a wooden pick or skewer comes out clean, 40 minutes for more cake-like brownies. Your oven may perform differently so keep watch on the brownies and use the baking timeframes as guidelines.
10. Cool brownies completely in pan on a rack. Remove brownies to a cutting board, remove parchment paper, and cut into squares.

Makes 9 large brownies. Slather with Nutella or your favorite chocolate frosting, sprinkle with cocoa powder, or just eat them plain. I prefer this recipe with Nutella “frosting.”

Variations: If you are a nut lover, add your favorite chopped nuts to this recipe. Swap the chocolate chips for Reese’s peanut butter chips, butterscotch chips, or white chocolate chips. Stir in some chopped coconut for a different flavor.

Buy espresso powder and Ghirardelli bittersweet chocolate at Amazon.com!

www.afoodloversdelight.com (Copyright Adroit Ideals 2014)

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