Brownies from Heaven

For brownies that will bring tears to your eyes (in a good way), try these Outrageous Brownies from Ina Garten. I made some tweaks (see below) because I had chocolate mint chips I wanted to use, which I made into two layers of ganache, but I am sure they are amazing in their original form as well. Note: they are even richer the next day.

Original recipe (taken from Smittenkitchen.com)

Ina Garten’s Outrageous Brownies

1 pound unsalted butter
28 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips, divided
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, divided
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour a 12×18x1 inch baking sheet. Melt together the butter, one pound of the 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 chips in a medium bowl with 1/4 cup 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 dough. Bake for another 15 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. (Mine took a lot longer, closer to 30 minutes) Do not overbake!

Allow to cool thoroughly, refrigerate.

Ina’s notes: Flouring the chips and walnuts keeps them from sinking to the bottom.
It is very important to allow the batter to cool well before adding the chips, or the chips will melt and ruin the brownies.

Do ahead: This recipe can be baked up to a week in advance, wrapped in plastic, and refrigerated.

My tweaks:

First, I cut the whole recipe in half and used a smaller pan. I omited the chocolate chips and walnuts. I made two ganaches (ganachi?) from a big bag of brown and green chocolate mint chips. After the brownies were done, but still warm, I poured a layer of chocolate mint ganache on top while carefully piercing the top of the brownies with a toothpick. Once that layer cooled, I topped it with the green ganache (recipes to follow).

Notes: This can be made with any flavor chips. My next attempt will be peanut butter chips, of course.

Ganache

6 ounces good semisweet chocolate chips
6 tablespoons heavy cream

Melt together in a double broiler until smooth.

Green Ganache

Seperate 4 ounces green chips out of the bag
2 ounces white chocolate
6 tablespoons heavy cream

Melt together in a double broiler until smooth.

Is there anything more lovely then melted chocolate?

Super dark, rich brownies with messy, goopey, yummy layers of ganache. Sigh.