Today, I am sitting in my family’s relatively new house in Minnesota! This is the first time I have been in the state since they bought it last spring and it is great to finally see it. After catching a little flack from my dad about the lack of posting lately, I decided to take the few minutes to update and post some recipes that I have been waiting to share. The lack of posting has been the result of finishing up my PhD and starting a post doc at Northwestern. Life has been crazy and I have only in the last few days gotten my kitchen together in my new apartment. While my apartment is pretty large, it is pretty old so I have been trying to adjust to the whistling of the radiators. Good thing I am pretty much a narcoleptic.
Today’s tastiness is my favorite brownie recipe. Oh man, this is what I would submit for a brownie bake off. The name is Sea Salt Brownies, but I just call them deliciousness. These brownies are gooey, crispy, chocolaty and indulgent with a hint of saltiness. You can eat them straight out of the oven (an intense chocolate experience) or if you can leave them for a day, the sea salt flavor is more prominent. Either way, they are great and really simple. Because the first time I made them was for Valentines day, surprisingly not for a special someone, I used pink Himalayan sea salt from Trader Joe’s. But flake sea salt or course ground sea salt will also work just fine.
Sea Salt Brownies
Ingredients
1 ½ sticks unsalted butter, roughly chopped into tbsp pieces
2-3 ounces of semi-sweet chocolate, finely chopped
¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons cocoa
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 ½ tsp vanilla
1 cup all-purpose flour
½ tsp sea salt (to mix into the batter) and ¼-1/2 tsp sea salt (to sprinkle on top)
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and spray a 9 in square baking dish with baking spray or line it with buttered foil.
- In a large saucepan, melt the butter with the semi-sweet chocolate over low heat. Occasionally stir the mixture. Melting the chocolate and butter together can also be done in a microwave with 30 second intervals, but a lot of care needs to be taken here so that you don’t scorch the chocolate. If scorching happens, the chocolate has a crusty texture and it just needs to be thrown out. There is no saving it.
- Remove the chocolate and butter from the heat and whisk in the cocoa, sugar, vanilla, ½ tsp sea salt and flour, until incorporated. At this point the mixture should be cool enough to whisk in the eggs.
- Once you have a smooth incorporated batter, pour it into the prepared pan and sprinkle with a little bit more sea salt.
- Bake the brownies until the edge is set but the center is still a little bit soft, it should not pass the toothpick test. If you can resist the temptation, I would suggest allowing the brownies to completely cool before chowing down.
Alrighty, that is my favorite brownie recipe! It is utter delicousness and simple. Give it a try, you will not be disappointed! I am also totally open to hearing/posting your favorite brownie recipe. So if you have a good one, bake it, take some pictures and send me a post. Happy eating!