10 Best Brownie Recipes ....Recipe #2 Milk Chocolate Brownies

I'm still trucking through the the 10 Best Brownie Recipes from www.epicurious.com blog. Last week was a mocha brownie...this week...a decadent milk chocolate brownie....

a recipe can't be too bad if it starts off with a big block of milk chocolate...my choice..Trader Joe's..great product at a great price.

The batter...lots of melted milk chocolate mixed with chopped milk chocolate...

Into the pan

the final product..a fudgy brownie with a ton of milk chocolate.

Milk Chocolate Brownies

from epicurious.com

Ingredients

1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
8 ounces fine-quality milk chocolate, chopped
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder

Directions
Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour a 9-inch square baking pan.

Melt butter and half of chocolate in a 1 1/2-quart heavy saucepan over low heat, stirring, until smooth. Remove from heat and cool to lukewarm. Stir in brown sugar and vanilla. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition, until mixture is glossy and smooth.

Whisk together remaining ingredients, then stir into chocolate mixture. Stir in remaining chocolate.
Spread batter in pan and bake until a wooden pick or skewer comes out with a few moist crumbs adhering, 25 to 30 minutes.

Just a couple notes....

this is a really rich but not overpowering chocolate brownie..probably because it uses milk chocolate vs. unsweetened or bittersweet chocolate. It is a smaller recipe..so if you're making a dessert for a crowd, probably not the best recipe to use but overall it's an excellent, fudgy, awesome brownie!

Enjoy!

10 Best Brownie Recipes...Recipe #1

I look at tons of baking and cooking blogs. Some I'm loyal to because the recipes are always so good and others I just look at for the pretty food pictures. While perusing some last week, I went to a good handy blog...the blog associated with epicurious.com...the peeps at Bon Appetit magazine.  One blog post caught my eye...their 10 Best Brownie Recipes. I'm a sucker for brownies and have been on a brownie kick..so this was right up my alley. So...here's the first recipe off their top ten list!

Double Chocolate Mocha Brownies...I'm a coffee lover and a chocolate lover..so these were my must try first recipe!

Any good brownie recipe made from scratch usually starts with these two ingredients...butter and chocolate. These double chocolate mocha brownies had a base of unsweetened chocolate

Some sugar and instant espresso powder

The other chocolate in these double chocolate mocha brownies..some semi sweet chips that were tossed with the flour

Put them all in one bowl and mix them together and you get a pretty decadent batter

Into a foil lined pan that was coated with butter..kind of a pain to do but makes for a super easy removal from the pan and no weird brownie chunks stuck in the corners.

Fresh out of the oven...

Freshly cut...

A close up of these...they were soooo good. On a brownie scale...a 9 in my book. Just a nice, not loaded down with too many nuts and other crap, good brownie with a hint of a coffee kick!

Then, I had to get them in my little plastic carrier to tote to work the next day so Mr. Allan and I don't eat them!

Double Chocolate Mocha Brownies
(from http://www.epicurious.com/)
1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) unsalted butter
5 oz unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon instant-espresso powder or instant-coffee granules
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 large eggs
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips


Preheat oven to 375°F. Line a 15- by 10- by 1-inch baking pan with foil, allowing 2 inches of foil to hang over ends of pan, and grease foil well (except overhang) with 1 tablespoon butter.

Melt remaining 11 tablespoons butter with unsweetened chocolate in a large metal bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water, stirring until smooth. Remove bowl from heat and whisk in sugar, espresso powder, vanilla, and salt (mixture will be grainy), then add eggs 1 at a time, whisking after each addition until batter is smooth.

Toss together flour and chocolate chips in another bowl and add to batter, stirring until just combined.

Spread batter evenly in baking pan and bake in middle of oven until top is firm and edges just begin to pull away from sides of pan, about 20 minutes (do not overbake).

Cool in pan on a rack 5 minutes, then carefully lift brownies from pan by grasping both ends of foil and transfer to rack to cool 10 minutes more. Cut into 32 squares and lift brownies off foil with a spatula.

Enjoy!