The Brownie King

My 12-yr old son loves brownies.  I mean, he really loves brownies. He would marry them if he could, that’s how much he loves them. About a month ago I decided it was time for this boy to learn to make brownies. After all, he is constantly begging me to make him brownies, and really I am just lazy he is 12 and needs to learn to cook more.  And since there really are no great brownie mixes out there, (oh stop, there isn’t) and seeing as it is just as fast to make homemade brownies, I taught Nathan how to make Mark Bittman’s brownies from his book How to Cook Everything. (Have I ever told you that I have a culinary crush on Mark Bittman? Well, I do.)

Fast forward a month later, and Nathan has mastered this recipe—melting chocolate and butter, stirring the dry ingredients together, and adding just a pinch of salt. “Do they really mean a pinch mom?” He has made these brownies at least 4 times, including this week for refreshments for a Boy Scout Court of Honor. 

Nathan: “Mom, I need to bring a dessert to the court of honor.”

Me: “Good thing you know how to make brownies now, isn’t it?”  He was happy to do so, he’s just concentratin’ real hard like in this photo.

Brownies (by Mark Bittman from How to Cook Everything)

2 oz unsweetened chocolate, roughly chopped

1 stick butter

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1/2 cup flour

pinch of salt

1/2 tsp vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8-inch square baking pan. Combine the chocolate and butter in a small saucepan and melt over very low heat. Transfer to a bown and stir in the sugar. Then beat in the eggs, one at a time. Gently stir in the flour, salt, and vanilla. Pour and scrape into pan at bake 20-25 minutes. Please don’t overbake, you want them just slightly gooey.

And for his birthday, Nathan wanted brownies again. But you gotta have fancy brownies for birthdays so I called my SIL Ilene and asked her what to do. She said to try Barefoot Contessa’s Brownie Tart. Oh, yea, huge hit. I mean, HUGE hit. And just as easy as the aforementioned recipe. Only fancy. Because round tart pans mean fancy and French. So take your pick!