Best Brownies

Photo and Food Styling: Kelly Vaughan

The best brownies, in my opinion, come from a box. I’ve tried to make batch after batch from scratch in hopes of mimicking the fudgy interior and shiny, crackly top that make boxed brownies so perfect, but failed again and again. So I took matters into my own hands and developed a recipe that I assure you is a perfect homemade version of boxed brownies — trust me, I wouldn’t settle for anything less than a 1:1 match.

There are technically two types of brownies: fudgy and cakey. These brownies offer the best of both worlds. You’ll get the structural integrity that cake-like brownies offer with the moist, rich and devilishly chocolaty bite that are the hallmark of fudgy brownies.

To make these brownies, you’ll start by melting butter and bittersweet chocolate together over a double boiler. Yes, this is fussier than simply microwaving the two together, but doing so will ensure that the chocolate doesn’t burn and the two blend together evenly. While they’re warming, sift the dry ingredients together — flour, cocoa powder, espresso powder and salt. The coffee flavor from the espresso powder will enhance the chocolate flavor without delivering mocha-like results.

Next, beat eggs and an added egg yolk in a stand mixer until they’re ribbony, glossy and a bit foamy; doing so is the real trick to getting fudgy brownies. Add a combination of granulated sugar and brown sugar, followed by canola oil (for moistness), vanilla (for flavor) and the chocolate-butter mixture. Combine and then slowly add the dry ingredients until the batter comes together. If you want to add chocolate chips (which I’m assuming you do), fold them in with a spatula to prevent overmixing the batter. Bake the brownies for 35 minutes and wait longer than you’d like to before digging in — I promise I wouldn’t make you wait if it wasn’t worth it.