AKA Yet Another Thing I Put Flaked Salt On

AKA What I Did with the Urfa Pepper*

AKA An Homage to Alice Medrich**

A couples weeks ago, I was going to post my go-to brownie recipe and mention that it’s what I’ve been adding Urfa pepper to, but then I didn’t have a photo handy, so I needed to make it again, and then while I was making it again, I started thinking about small changes I could make to make it better, and then after I made those, I started reading more and thinking about a few more changes, and then I had suddenly made a whole lot of brownies and still didn’t have it quite right.***

But now? I think I’ve got it, although I also just read that resting the brownie batter in the refrigerator for awhile makes the texture and crackly crust better, so there’s one more thing I’m likely to try.

Brown Butter Cocoa Brownies 

• 10 Tbsp (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter
• 1 1/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder 
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp Urfa pepper (opt.) or 1 tsp espresso powder (also opt.)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 Tbsp bourbon, other liquor, coffee, or water****
• 2 large eggs, cold 
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour 
• flaked sea salt (such as Maldon, technically opt.)

Butter an 8inch square pan and dust it with cocoa (or line it with parchment if you need them all to come out cleanly). Place a rack in the bottom third of the oven. Preheat oven to 325ºF.

Using a saucepan big enough to eventually hold all the ingredients, brown the butter.***** Off heat, but while the butter is still quite hot, add the sugar, cocoa, salt and optional Urfa pepper (or espresso powder), then stir until well blended using a stiff spatula. Next, stir in the vanilla and bourbon (or other liquid), then the cold eggs, one at a time, stirring until fully incorporated with each addition. Next, stir in the flour until no streaks remain. Finally, stir the whole thing vigorously for 50 strokes.

Spread batter in prepared pan. (If you have time, let it chill in the fridge for a few minutes up to overnight.) Sprinkle with flaked sea salt, if using. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until only a bit of batter adheres to a toothpick inserted off-center. Cool before cutting. Share.

*The Urfa pepper from our trip to Zingerman’s, which I promised I’d tell you about.

**Limited research shows that basically every great brownie recipe on the internet, including this one, was inspired or informed by Alice Medrich. Respect.

***My goal was to strike the right balance of simple (not too many dishes, ingredients I tend to have on hand, no swearing at parchment paper, etc.) and delicious (browning the butter, deep chocolate taste, etc.). This turned out to be trickier than I thought.

****This adds back in the liquid lost when you brown the butter. Any liquid should work. Bourbon, of course, means you can call them “Brown Butter Bourbon Brownies” or “b4” for short.

*****To brown butter, cook it over low heat until it starts to brown and smell nutty, scraping the bottom of the pan (use the same stuff spatula!) occasionally to keep the milk solids from sticking too much. This generally takes about five minutes, but will depend on your stove and your pan.