Rich Brownies

Rich brownies are cake-like but are denser and not springy or gooey.

Ingredients

  • 4 ounces (110 g) unsweetened baking chocolate
  • ⅔ cup (160 g / 1.6 dl) solid fat (e.g. margarine, butter, shortening, or lard)
  • 2 cups (450 g / 2.7 dl) baking sugar
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1¼ cup (300 g / 3 dl) flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 cup (240 g / 2.4 dl) coarsely chopped nuts (½ inch / 1 cm walnuts work well)
Rich Brownies

Photo: Andy Li / Wikimedia Commons / CC0

Procedure

  1. Heat oven to 175 °C (350 °F).
  2. Melt chocolate and margarine in a double boiler, or (carefully) in a saucepan on low heat, stirring often.
  3. Remove from heat.
  4. Mix in the sugar, eggs and vanilla.
  5. Excluding the nuts, mix the dry ingredients with each other, and then into the wet mixture.
  6. Mix in the nuts.
  7. Spread into a 30×20 cm (13×9 in) baking pan, or into two 20×20 cm (8×8 in) baking pans.
  8. Bake for 30 minutes, or until brownies pull away from the sides of the pan.

Notes, tips, and variations

  • This works well with 3 Tablespoons of oil in place of the solid fat. When using lard, ⅓ cup should be about right.
  • Unlike other brownie recipes which use cocoa powder and fill one small pan, this recipe uses baking chocolate and fills two small pans or one large one.