I had never made homemade brownies before (oh the shame!) and for my first I had to go with Queen Contessa’s recipe that had a million glowing reviews. It was a lot easier than I thought it would be (oh, but I’ll leave the part out where I forgot to add the flour and had to yank them out of the oven to add, woopsie daisy.)

These have a heavy dark chocolate taste, which co-workers and the husband approved of, but next time I might do more semi-sweet chocolate instead of the unsweetened. But oh, were they buttery and fudge-like. Drooooool.

Ingredients:
1 lb unsalted butter
1 lb plus 12 oz semisweet chocolate chips
6 oz unsweetened chocolate
6 extra-large eggs
3 tbs instant coffee granules
2 tbs pure vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups sugar
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbs baking powder
1 tsp salt
3 cups chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees then butter and flour a 12 x 18 x 1-inch baking sheet. Melt together the butter, 1 pound of chocolate chips, and the unsweetened chocolate in a medium bowl over simmering water and 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 chocolate chips in a medium bowl with 1/4 cup of flour, then add them to the chocolate batter. Pour into the baking sheet.

Bake for 20 minutes, then pound the baking sheet against the oven shelf to force the air to escape from between the pan and the brownie dough. Bake for about 15 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Do not overbake! Allow to cool thoroughly, refrigerate, and cut into 20 large squares.