Communitas, Caritas… Chocolat-as?

I’ve already introduced you to the singleton’s brownie. A brownie in a mug is autonomous, independent, in control… but wouldn’t you rather have interdependent brownies? Brownies you’ve gotta share?

Today I made this recipe twice, with some minor variations. These are brownies to form a community around.

My variations and notes: I used Hershey’s dark cocoa, which makes the brownies look burnt. They’re not burnt. They’re awesome. I used salted butter because life’s too short to buy unsalted. I did not use nuts.

Don’t worry if you can’t make the parchment paper sit nicely in the baking dish. It’ll settle down once you get the batter in there.

I used the microwave for the “heatproof bowl” step. That worked fine. Just melt the butter a bit until you can mix it into everything else. Using the dark cocoa made this step look a lot like moist soil or really clumpy coffee grounds. I assume that’s what SK means by “gritty.”

The big thing is that I never, ever got the toothpick test to work. The first batch of these I made was completely ruined because I just kept bakin’ and toothpickin’ in the fond hope that eventually it would do what it was supposed to do. The second time around I baked until the top was crackly but still had “give.” That was fine. (It took about 40 minutes, not 25, but my oven runs low.) The second time I allowed more “give” and checked less often, but still baked about 40 mins, and to be honest this batch is on the borderline between moist and gooey. I think they’re great but the middle bits are far from cakey. In general this is a recipe for people who want their brownies to be melt-in-your-mouth, not cakey and crumby.

Overall this is a fast and simple recipe which turns out brownies so rich that you’ll essentially be forced to share. Delicious charity!