Pegasus' Favorite Recipe for Intensely Chocolate Brownies

Source: Working Women magazine, January 1985, by Aimee Lee Ball.


Notes from Pegasus: I like to use Drostes cocoa or the richest cocoa I can find. I use real vanilla extract, not imitation. You can get the real stuff from the Williams Sonoma mail-order catalog. It's made with real Madagascar Bourbon!


4 oz [110 grams] unsweetened chocolate 3 heaping tablespoons cocoa powder 1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) unsalted butter 3 tablespoons raspberry syrup 1 tablespoon vanilla extract 4 eggs 1/4 teaspoon salt 2 cups sugar 1 cup flour, sifted


1. Melt the chocolate, cocoa and butter in a small, heavy saucepan over low heat. Off heat, stir in raspberry and vanilla flavorings.


2. In an electric mixer, beat eggs with salt until foamy. Gradually add sugar and beat for 10 minutes, until very thick and pale yellow in color.


3. Stir chocolate mixture into batter with a spatula, till just mixed. Stir in sifted flour, till just mixed. Pour into buttered 7 1/2 inch by 11 inch pan and bake in a preheated oven at 375 F [190 C] for 25 minutes.


4. Watch carefully for the last ten minutes of baking. If edges start to burn, cover loosely with a sheet of aluminum foil. Let cool completely before cutting.


PS. In place of raspberry, you may substitute another fruit syrup, or a heaping tablespoon of crushed expresso coffee powder. I like my brownies pure and unadulterated, but you can also add 1 cup chopped nuts, raisins or chocolate morsels.


PPS. As soon as the brownies come out of the oven, I shove them, still in the pan, into the freezer on a trivet for about 15 minutes. This is called the fudgification process, and for some reason I can't explain, it ensures the right consistency.


VR: Jason, Pegasus, Thyra