Martha's Brownies

This is a fantastic recipe for Brownies! It is found in Martha's "Favorite Comfort Food" book. I have made this one quite a few times, and this time I made a few "enhancements". I watch Ina when I can, and decided to add a few of her touches. One is adding a bit of coffee, I used cold coffee, leftover from breakfast ( I think she uses powdered coffee) and the other is to rap the pan against the oven shelf halfway through baking to allow the air to escape and I assume, keep the brownies from getting too cakey. This is a fudgy brownie recipe, but you can adjust them to a cakier consistency by adding an additional egg. Use the best chocolate you can find, the brand in the photo below was what was available to me.

I had to adjust the cooking time because I do not have a true 9"x13" pan. My pan was a bit smaller, so the brownies took an additional 10 minutes to bake. Whatever pan you use, just be sure to check on them so they do not over bake.

After cooling, I wrapped them individually in wax paper and took some to our family that is recuperating. I did keep a few for us, which as you can see in the photo, I served with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream and a squiggle of chocolate syrup. Believe me, they are so rich and chocolaty that one was enough for us to split.


Martha's Brownies
make about twelve 3-inch squares

12 tbl (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut in pieces, plus more for the pan ( I never cut my butter up, oops)
8 oz best-quality bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped
4 large eggs
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed dark-brown sugar
1 tbl pure vanilla extract
3 tbl cold coffee
1 1/3 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9" x 13" baking pan with butter, and set aside












In the top of a double boiler or in a heat-proof bowl over simmering water, melt the butter and chocolate until smooth; stir occasionally. Remove from the heat. Allow to cool to room temperature.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the eggs, granulated and brown sugars, vanilla and coffee, and beat well with a wire whisk. In a separate bowl, combine the sifted flour and salt.

Add the cooled chocolate mixture to the egg mixture and, using a wooden spoon, stir until well combined. Gradually add the flour mixture and beat until thoroughly combined. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.


Bake until a tester inserted into the center of the brownie comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Do not over bake. Let stand on a rack in the pan until cool. Cut into 3" squares and serve or store in an airtight container, at room temperature, up to 2 days. I found that if wrapped individually in wax paper, they kept fine in the fridge.