TEENY TINY CHOCOLATE BROWNIES

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

adapted from Bouchon by Thomas Keller

makes 48 teeny tiny brownies

A great brownie should take you to Nirvana with the first bite. It should be moist almost to the point of molten, and taste rich and dense on the tongue. In my opinion, very few brownies live up to these expectations. The ones that do are almost always made with high quality chocolate and copious amounts of butter.

These brownies are rich and oozy like only the best brownie can be. I made them in mini muffin pans because sometimes just a teeny tiny bite of chocolate is all you need. A teeny tiny bit of decadence can make you feel good. Freeze them. Pull out a few and microwave when you have your friends over for coffee. Serve them drizzled with chocolate sauce and top with raspberries when you have a dinner party. But the best idea by far, is to put one into your child’s sack lunch. This mommy-made little piece of chocolate will light up their day. It’s a kiss in a teeny tiny brownie.

Does baking intimidate you? Relax because this recipe is easy. Visualize for one moment: one bowl of flour, cocoa powder and salt; one bowl of melted butter; and one bowl of beaten eggs, sugar and vanilla. Mix them together, add some chocolate chips, and bake. Your children can help.

Butter and flour for the mini muffin tins
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, use premium like Scharffenberger or Valrhona
1 teaspoon kosher salt
3 large eggs
1-1/2 cups plus 3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
24 tablespoons (3 sticks)unsalted butter, melted and slightly warm
6 ounces semisweet chocolate, again, use premium, chopped into pieces the size of chocolate chips
Confectioners’ sugar

1. PREP DRY INGREDIENTS: Preheat the oven to 350. Butter and flour mini muffin pan(s). Sift the flour, cocoa powder, and salt into a bowl; set aside.

2. PREP WET INGREDIENTS: In a large bowl, beat eggs and sugar on medium speed for until pale, about 3 minutes. Add vanilla.

3. COMBINE WET AND DRY: Reduce speed to LOW and add about 1/3 of the dry ingredients, then 1/3 of the butter. Alternate adding the remaining flour and then the remaining butter. Add the chocolate. At this point, the batter can be refrigerated for up to a day.

I could just swim in this batter…..there must be chocolate in Heaven

4. BAKE: Fill each mini muffin about 2/3 full. Bake for 12 to 17 minutes. They are done when a wooden skewer or toothpick comes out clean but not dry when inserted. Leave brownies in molds to cool on a rack. When cool, invert and lift off molds. Dust them with confectioners’ sugar.