Tuesdays with Dorie: Best Ever Brownies

This week's recipe is for brownies!  I have to admit that homemade brownies and I do not have a good track record and I've always been a die hard fan of brownie mix.  It's the only dessert that I thought was better from a package than homemade.  I've only tried making them from scratch a couple of times, and they were always exceedingly "blah."  I've had other people's homemade brownies, too, and no matter how much they brag about them, they too are unremarkable, or at least not as good as the kind from a mix.

Well, my friends, all that has changed with this recipe for Best Ever Brownies!  Theoretically we only have to make one Tuesdays with Dorie recipe each month and I already did mine for November, but since I have had exceedingly good results with all but one recipe from the Baking with Julia book, I decided to go for it!  Absolutely no regrets because these really ARE the best brownies either of us have ever had.  Rich, chocolaty, very fudgy, a little chewy, moist, and with that perfect crackled brownie top.  They also stay good for several days, which is a bonus since we don't feel pressured to eat the entire pan in a day :oD  I am also very happy at the prospect of leaving boxed brownie mix behind forever (or mostly, at least- I have a super easy PB Brownie Bites recipe I'll be sharing soon).

You can view the recipe over at A Beautiful Mess.  The only change I made was to use all semisweet chocolate chips for the chocolate.  It turned out delicious this way, but next time I will definitely use the unsweetened and bittersweet chocolates specified in the recipe so it will have even more chocolate flavor.  I also had to bake the recipe a full 50 minutes, basically twice as long as the recipe said.  This was a common issue other TWD people encountered.  I'm certain my brownies were not overbaked- they were completely liquid at 25 minutes and it wasn't until 50 minutes that my toothpick came out gooey rather than covered with runny batter.  To counteract this, I'd like to try baking the batter in a 9 by 13 pan since the brownies were quite thick anyway, and I will DEFINITELY grease the pan (the recipe said not to) since they stuck to the bottom some.  Those little issues aside, this recipe is awesome and I will definitely make them again and again (and again)!