Outrageous Brownies

This is the best brownie recipe ever!! You'll never try another brownie recipe after making these! Here are a few tips: For a dark chocolate lovers, use Ghiradelli Double Dark/60% or bittersweet chocolate in place of the semi-sweet chocolate. I often use 1 lb of bittersweet chocolate to melt, and 1 to 1 1/2 packages of dark chocolate chips folded into the batter. Get out your kitchen scale and weigh your chocolate for best results. While I love dark chocolate, after making these a dozen times, I've discovered that using a good quality semi-sweet chocolate, as directed, yields a crowd-pleasing result (for those who may not love dark chocolate as much). They are surprisingly rich with the semi-sweet chocolate, too!<br/><br/>Don't hesitate to melt chocolates and butter in the microwave, checking and stirring every minute (usually takes 3 minutes).<br/><br/>Another helpful tip is to line the pan with parchment paper so that there's a 1"-2" overhang. When the brownies have baked and COMPLETELY cooled, you can then carefully lift the whole batch out of the pan and onto a cutting board. Refrigerate and cut when cold if you like uniform squares. Otherwise, these moist brownies will look like brownie heaps. Another treat is to trim the edges off the batch and store these bits in a ziplock bag in the freezer - perfect for a quick fix or for ice cream toppings!<br/><br/>Enjoy and be sure sure to spring for the good stuff: fresh butter, fresh walnuts, high-quality chocolate. A batch might set you back $20, but you'll soon be having people wanting to pay you to make them. LOL.

These are wonderful brownies. The only change I made was I used pecans instead of walnuts. So rich and chocolaty and yummo!

I decided to finally try a non-cocoa brownie recipe and settled for this one after reading rave reviews not only on this site but another site. Converted the measurements for the butter and choc chips into cup measurements (2 cups butter, 2 2/3 cups choc chips plus 2 cups choc chips). I actually only made 1/6th of the recipe because this was a test batch (still in search of the perfect brownie recipe) and still it made about 12 decent sized squares. I know scaling down recipes is not a simple exercise of pro-rating ingredients each time but there was no way I was going to make the full recipe. So here is the scaled down recipe I used: 1/2 cup butter, 2/3 cup choc chips + 1/2 cup choc chips, 1.5 oz unsweetened choc (I used the individually wrapped 1 oz bars so these were easy to measure out), 1 extra large egg or 2 medium eggs, 1/2 tbsp vanilla, 9 tbsp sugar (1/2 cup + 1 tbsp), 5 tbsp flour (1/4 cup + 1 tbsp), 3/4 tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp salt, 3/4 cups walnuts. If adding the coffee granules (I didn't), then 1/2 tbsp of that. Well, these were yummy and rich, fudgy and decadent but I don't know whether it is significantly better than the many cocoa brownie recipes I have tried or worth the extra effort of melting the butter and chocolate in a double boiler. I will probably stick to my cocoa brownie recipe and just add in some choc chips to the batter before baking (I like how the addition of the non-melted choc chips turned out in this recipe). If I do make these again, I will also probably, as a reviewer suggested, use bittersweet chocolate in place of unsweetened chocolate.

I have to fess up...I haven't made these yet, but have seen them being made on The Barefoot Contessa's show many times and they look wonderful and have all the ingredients for being a wonderful brownie. So rather than give it no stars, I gave it three, because I actually don't know. I did read the reviews on The Food Network site about people who've made this "Outrageous Brownie" and while most were complimentary and the brownies were everything and more they were promised to be, others had trouble even though they followed directions (pan size included) exactly. The biggest negative were a couple comments about this brownie being the "crumbly" type. They didn't look that way on TV. They looked moist and fudgy. Others complained of little things saying the coffee ingredient was too strong, which was not a big deal for me. I love the way coffee compliments chocolate, and if I didn't, I would just cut back on that portion of the recipe. Others said they were too "chocolaty" and used bittersweet chocolate instead of the unsweetened in the recipe. I am wanting to make these brownies, but have been unsure. There are a lot of expensive ingredients for the recipe to fail and not come out as expected, but I suppose the only way to know is to jump in and try. Still, I have those negative concerns echoing in my head from the TFN site about these brownies. Although Ina herself claimed it was probably the biggest seller at her store (The Barefoot Contessa) at one time and one of the most requested recipes of all time. I've been looking for a while for the perfect brownie recipe and have tried many that were just "OK". But these have that certain something, the butter/chocolate/flour ratio that I think might make them the ultimate brownie. The biggest pet peeve about brownies I have is the edges bake quicker than the middle, and I always end up de-panning and cutting away an inch or so all the way around so nobody gets a "crusty" edge. Hate that. Also (lol!), if I'm going to make them, I need to make way in the refrigerator to put the pan in when it's partially cooled from the oven. A half sheet pan takes up a lot of space if your refrigerator is somewhat full. I believe cooling them completely in the refrigerator is an important part of this recipe. And before anyone suggests making half the recipe (or even a third), that's not an option for me when baking. I don't think Ina would do it, or she would have posted it on TFN's site explaining it was OK to do so. Baking is a science, and just because the recipe is exactly "half", doesn't mean you'll achieve the same "full" results. Those of you that have done so with success....more power to you. After all my concerns, if I do dive in and make these soon, I promise to post here with a TRUE review and hopefully set aside any worries I had. (Sorry this was so long-winded).

I have made these twice now, and they are divine. Just for our personal tastes, I only use 1.5 tbsp of the instant coffee, and replace the walnuts with milk & white chocolate chunks (because what this recipe needs is MORE chocolate, right? ;) ) and they get rave reviews every time. I love, love, love Ina Garten & her recipes, and this one is no exception! Thanks for posting it!