You know, sometimes you just NEED to have a brownie.

This weekend was time-change weekend for most of us in the United States. The fall back one always hits me a little harder than the spring one. I think it has to do with the sun setting before I walk out of work at 5:00 for the next four months. As a way to cope with this, I decided to do one of the healthiest, and therapy-approved methods: bake something sweet!

Back in September, this blog turned 3. If you didn’t know that, I don’t blame you. I didn’t make a big deal out of it. I was too busy working my first full time job ever. That’s the real reason for the lack of posts. I no longer have consistent 3-day weekends. Three years ago, I started this blog as a way to document my experience cooking through Ina Garten’s recipes. If you’ve been reading since the beginning, you’ll know that since it’s inception this blog has morphed into other topics aside from Ina.

But the last few posts have been featuring Ina’s recipes and this one is no different. I decided to celebrate the start of early nights with a recipe of Ina’s that I’ve been wanting to bake for a long time, but frankly, was too intimidated to do so.

The sheer amount of semi-sweet chocolate chips would make my grandmother cringe (FYI: she doesn’t like semi-sweet chocolate). There’s also an entire pound (!) of butter in the recipe. Granted, this recipe makes an entire half-sheet pan worth of brownies. Ina recommended cutting them into 20 pieces, but that would have led to ENORMOUS brownies. I got about 40 out of the tray, which was still probably more than enough.

What recipe am I talking about?

Ina Garten’s Outrageous Brownies

This recipe is old. It’s in her first cookbook that was published near the end of the last millennium. These brownies were a consistent sell-out at her specialty food store in the Hamptons and ever since the recipe was published, us plebs have been able to enjoy the velvety richness that is a Hamptons brownie.

Instead of going through the baking process, I’ve decided to include the recipe in the post in case, you too, are taking on the struggle bus post-time change. My review of the outcome is below.

I hope you enjoy these brownies as much as I did. And don’t be like me and balk at the ingredients list. It’s really not that bad, though it will burn a small hole in the wallet. But you get enough brownies for the office holiday party…or you know, a sad night alone with your bestie.

The Recipe

Ina Garten’s Outrageous Brownies

• 1 pound unsalted butter
• 1 pound PLUS 12 ounces of semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 6 ounces of unsweetened chocolate
• 6 extra-large eggs
• 3 tablespoons instant coffee granules (*I used 2 tablespoons of instant espresso powder)
• 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
• 2 1/4 cups of sugar
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 3 cups chopped walnuts (*I DID NOT use walnuts in my recipe)

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Butter and flour a 12 x 18 x 1 inch baking sheet (Nordic Ware makes a baking sheet this size, and Costco sells them too. They are larger than standard “cookie sheets.”)
3. Melt together the butter, 1 pound of the chocolate chips, and the unsweetened chocolate in a medium bowl over simmering water. Allow to cool slightly (about 10-12 minutes).
4. In a large bowl, stir (not beat) together the eggs, coffee granules, vanilla, and the sugar.
5. Stir in the warm chocolate mixture into the egg mixture and allow to cool to room temperature. This is very important! If you do not wait, the rest of the chocolate chips will melt and it will ruin the batter!
6. In a medium bowl, sift together 1 cup of flour, the baking powder, and the salt. Add to the cooled chocolate mixture. Toss the walnuts (if using) and the remaining chocolate chips in a medium bowl with 1/4 cup of flour. Add these to the chocolate batter and stir to combine, just until no streaks of flour remain.
7. Pour onto the buttered and floured baking sheet.
8. Bake for 20 minutes, then rap the baking sheet against the oven shelf to force air to escape. Bake for an additional 15 minutes (I only needed 13 more minutes), until a toothpick comes out clean in the center. (When testing, making sure that what is on your toothpick is actual batter and NOT melted chocolate.)
9. Allow to cool thoroughly on a rack, then refrigerate for 15-20 minutes before cutting to making slicing easier.

My Review

This recipe makes a lot of batter and thus a lot of brownies. Ina’s original recipe states to cut them into 20 squares, but doing so would yield gigantic brownies. Instead, I cut my sheet of brownie into about 40 squares. They are still decadently rich and I wouldn’t be sad if I cut them even further for a large party or holiday giving.

The recipe is surprisingly easy to make, the only thing that took a while was melting the chocolate and butter and then waiting for things to cool down to proper temperature. However, since there are prep steps to do in between, it really isn’t that big of a deal. You can also use this waiting time to keep up with the dishes.

I do recommend that after you rap the baking sheet on the rack that you keep an eye on the brownies. Mine were done in less than 15 minutes. And these produce excellent fudgey brownies. If you’re more of a cakey brownie fan than these may not be for you. Be prepared for absolutely chocolaty-rich brownies and the coffee flavor to come through. Next time I bake these, I’ll probably cut back to one tablespoon of the espresso coffee granules so it isn’t quite as over powering.