Double Chocolate Brownies

(Dairy or Pareve)

Karla Hailer-Fidelman

I like this recipe for a lot of reasons. First, it makes a really nice rich brownie that holds up well as a base for brownie sundaes or on its own. Second, I can do it all in one 3-quart saucepan, which cuts down on clean-up time. It’s also easy enough that kids are able to help make this – of course, for them, that usually means licking the spoon clean.

I’ve also tried variants on the flavor by using different extracts, such as orange or mint, instead of vanilla. They give a nice subtle change to the flavor, but we tend to stick with the traditional vanilla extract around my house. I’ve also made these as “negative chip” brownies, using traditional semi-sweet chocolate chips for the base and mixing in half a bag of white chocolate chips instead of the rest of the semi-sweet chips.

Ingredients

5 1/3 tablespoons of butter or margarine
3/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons water
12-ounce bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips (divided in half)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs

Preheat oven to 325 degrees (300 degrees in a convection oven). Grease a 9x9 or 7x11 baking pan.

In a medium saucepan, combine the sugar, butter or margarine, and water over a medium flame, stirring occasionally. Bring this JUST to a boil (edges are just starting to boil) and remove from the heat. Add half of the chocolate chips and stir until melted.

Add vanilla and stir. Add flour, baking soda, and salt and stir until a dough begins to form. Add the two eggs and stir until the batter is smooth. Add the rest of the chocolate chips, stirring thoroughly, and then pour into the greased baking pan.

Bake for 30-35 minutes (about 25 minutes in a convection oven). Cool in the pan before cutting and serving.

Karla Hailer-Fidelman works for Network Technology Corporation and does web site development work for ShalomBoston.com. She writes a weekly column for Jewish.com and a regular column for Community Newspapers.