Brownies!

I made these the other night, and then bragged about them on Twitter. My pal, Meghan, requested the recipe, so here we go!

Brownies Cockaigne [Slightly modified from the Joy of Cooking recipe.] - 30 brownies, but you'll probably eat the whole tray that night, anyway.

1/2 C butter
4 oz unsweetened baking chocolate
4 eggs
1/2 tsp salt
1 C white sugar
1 C brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 C flour

In a double-boiler, melt chocolate and butter. Let cool.

Beat eggs and salt until light in color and foamy. [I often do this by hand, and it is pretty rewarding if you are feeling the need to let off some steam. Otherwise, a mixer works just fine.] Continue beating and gradually add sugar and vanilla until well creamed.

With a few swift strokes, combine cooled chocolate mixture into the eggs and sugar by hand. Before uniformly colored, fold in 1 cup flour.

Pour batter into a greased and floured 9x13" pan and bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Brownies are done when toothpick inserted in center comes out almost clean.

Notes: For a fudgier brownie, I like to use half white sugar and half brown sugar. And for a holiday kick, try mint extract instead of vanilla. Recipe works really well with Bob's Redmill TM gluten-free, all-purpose flour.

I keep baking chocolate on hand at all times for the express purpose of whipping up a batch of these at a moments notice. If you ever come over to my house for dinner, chances are, these are going to be for dessert.