Outrageous Brownies

I was leafing through the December 2005 issue of Food & Wine at the beach and saw a recipe for brownies with FOUR kinds of chocolate. It looked intriguing though I immediately thought we would be missing several ingredients if I hadn’t planned on this dessert on the way out from Manila. I opened the fridge and rummaged about and much to my surprise I found a box of Hershey’s unsweetened chocolate which WAS intended for brownies. But better yet, I found several bars of Lindt Dark Chocolate, some Hershey’s milk chocolate and a huge bar of Callebaut white chocolate and I started to get excited. Throw in some real vanilla extract, a pound of Plugra European style butter and a sufficient amount of eggs and I knew I was in business… brownies with four different kinds of chocolate was an hour away…

I didn’t use the recipe in Food & Wine. I just adjusted the recipe on the back of the Hershey’s box by doing the following. Use the same ingredients BUT alter the technique…it makes a difference. First, melt the butter and chocolate on a stovetop at low heat until just melted. Mix well and set aside to cool rather thoroughly. Mixing it into the other ingredients while hot alters the consistency of the final product. Next beat the eggs and sugar with an electric mixer until a lighter yellow color. Add the vanilla and flour and any other ingredients specified on the box. Then add in the cooled chocolate mixture and put in baking pans. Here comes the 4 chocolate variant. Chop up the milk, dark and white chocolate and either mix it into the batter before you put it in the pans, leaving some pieces to sprinkle on the top of the brownies… or follow the Food & Wine suggestion of melting the chocolates and swirling it into the batter. I was lazy and just added the chocolate pieces, that’s what looks like nuts in the photos. You may want to take the extra step and melt the chocolates and swirl it into the batter.

The next key to good brownies is to slightly undercook them. Remove from the oven as soon as just a slight tinge of batter clings to a toothpick. It will continue to cook outside of the oven. I generally do 20-25 minutes on a 350 degree oven. Allow to cool a bit before slicing. I have made hundreds of batches of brownies in my life and I can tell you this version is a home run! So easy to do and so chocolatey to boot. If you have cooked it just right it almost oozes when you cut into it with a fork. Add nuts if you want another layer of flavor but I like it without nuts. We had several guests at the house the day I made these brownies and all of them thought it was really good. Try this version the next time you plan to make some regular box brownies…