Outrageous Brownies

Have you seen the movie Julie and Julia? You know, the movie where a woman named Julie cooks the recipes from Julia Child's cookbook for an entire year and blogs about it? Well, I'm beginning to think that my blog has become AJ and Ina. It seems like most of the recipes I've used involves Ina Garten. I don't know how many Ina Garten recipes I have used on this blog but it feels like every other blog post has been from Ina. Oh well, her food is delicious and that's all that matters.

So, this weeks creation was Brownies, specifically Ina Garten's Outrageous Brownies. I've been on the search for a great tasting brownie recipe for years now. Each time I made brownies from scratch, they don't exactly match my standards and by standards I mean the boxed brownie mixes. The boxed brownie mixes are the best. They are chewy, fudge-y, a little cake-like and chocolate-y. They just have a great overall taste to them. When you keep going back to a pan of brownies and slicing yourself a piece, you know it's great and that's what the boxed brownies do for me. With the different brownie recipes I have tried, such as Ghiradelli's and Hershey's recipes, I find that they are not chocolate-y enough and have a strange taste to them. I've wanted to try out Ina Garten's Outrageous Brownies for a couple of years now because of the great reviews but failed to do so because it requires a whole POUND of butter!! That's a crazy amount of butter and I didn't want to waste all that butter if the brownies turned out badly. So, I finally got the courage to make them by halving the recipe and just using two sticks of butter.

What's the result? I'm not that big of a fan. Sorry, Ina! So many people say these are the best but I don't think so. Compared to other brownie recipes from scratch, yes, these brownies are much better. Compared to the boxed brownie mix, the boxed brownie mix is much better in my opinion. Maybe I've just grown accustomed to the boxed brownies but for me, these did have a strong chocolate flavor but I feel as if the boxed version has more of a pleasant chocolate flavor, if that makes sense? Also, I didn't like the texture so much. These were like fudge so I was confused when eating them. I mean, I like them fudgey but I don't want to eat the fudge candy. I was somewhat disappointed by these. I think from now on, I will stick to the boxed version. But, I'm still going to be on the look out for a "from-scratch" version. What about you? What's your favorite "from-scratch" brownie recipe? Here's the recipe!

Outrageous Brownies (Makes 20 Large Brownies)
Ingredients
1 pound unsalted butter
1 pound plus 12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
6 ounces unsweetened chocolate
6 extra-large eggs
3 tablespoons instant coffee granules
2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups sugar
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups chopped walnuts

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Butter and flour a 12 x 18 x 1-inch baking sheet.

Melt together the butter, 1 pound of chocolate chips, and the unsweetened chocolate in a medium bowl over simmering water. Allow to cool slightly. In a large bowl, stir (do not beat) together the eggs, coffee granules, vanilla, and sugar. Stir the warm chocolate mixture into the egg mixture and allow to cool to room temperature.

In a medium bowl, sift together 1 cup of flour, the baking powder, and salt. Add to the cooled chocolate mixture. Toss the walnuts and 12 ounces of chocolate chips in a medium bowl with 1/4 cup of flour, then add them to the chocolate batter. Pour into the baking sheet.

Bake for 20 minutes, then rap the baking sheet against the oven shelf to force the air to escape from between the pan and the brownie dough. Bake for about 15 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Do not overbake! Allow to cool thoroughly, refrigerate, and cut into 20 large squares.


-Aaron John
My Food Outings: AJ's Food Adventure
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