Ina Garten’s Outrageous Brownies recipe has been my favorite for a couple of years. I’ve made these brownies at least half a dozen times, though I always halve the recipe because the full recipe is way too much for B and me. Oh, who am I kidding? I’d totally eat all of the brownies if I made the full recipe, which is why I don’t. Willpower isn’t my strong suit. I’ll list the full recipe below, just in case you have an event to cater.
I included the coffee granules in the recipe, which I only use about once every other time that I make these. Actually, I just use Sanka. If you don’t like coffee, you can leave this ingredient out altogether and the brownies still taste great. This time around, I also subbed pecans for walnuts, and they provided a nice, slightly maple element.
I thought I’d try swapping out the white flour in the recipe with whole wheat, you know, to make the brownies about 5% healthy. I worry about swapping white flour with whole wheat 1 to 1 in some recipes because it can change the texture significantly. However, they still came out beautifully; I couldn’t tell the difference in texture between the ones I’ve made with white flour and these. B described them as “excruciatingly rich”, and I think that sounds about right.
adapted from The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook
Ingredients
1 lb. unsalted butter
1 lb. plus 12 oz. semisweet chocolate chips, divided
6 oz. unsweetened chocolate
6 large eggs
3 Tbsp. instand coffee granules
2 Tbsp. vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups sugar
1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour, divided
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp. kosher salt
3 cups diced pecan pieces (or walnut pieces)
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 13x18x1 1/2 inch baking sheet (half sheet pan) with parchment. If you’re halving the recipe, use a 13x9x1 1/2 inch baking sheet (quarter sheet pan).
2. Melt the butter, 1 lb. of the semisweet chocolate chips, and the unsweetened chocolate in a bowl on the top of a double boiler (a pan of simmering water that doesn’t touch the bottom of the bowl). After the mixture is completely melted, set it aside to cool. Meanwhile, in another bowl, stir together the eggs, coffee granules, sugar, and vanilla. Add the cooled chocolate mixture and cool to room temp.
3. In a small mixing bowl, combine 1 cup of the flour, the baking powder, and salt. Toss the remaining 1/4 cup of flour together with the pecans and remaining chocolate chips (this helps to keep the nuts and chips from sinking to the bottom). Add the flour and nut/chocolate chip/flour mixture to the batter. Pour onto the prepared baking sheet.
4. Bake for 20 minutes, and rap the baking sheet against the oven shelf to force the air out from between the pan and brownie dough. This helps make the brownies nice and fudgy. Bake for about 15 minutes more, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Be careful not to overbake. Cool thoroughly and cut into squares.
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