Chocolate Sea Salt Brownies

These brownies are the perfect combination of fudgy and cakey. They're incredibly easy to make too. One bowl, plus one spatula, plus one pan equals chocolate nirvana. No electric mixer needed. No fancy techniques.

This wonderful brownie recipe is minimally adapted from Joy of Baking's brownies. A sprinkling of coarse sea salt is the magic ingredient. Salt makes brownies taste even more chocolaty. 

Warming the chocolate, stirring it, sneaking a taste, while chasing the workweek blues away is kitchen therapy. Nothing beats the smell of brownies baking. Minimal effort, big reward. 

Sipping a hot latte or a cup of tea with a warm chocolate brownie is bliss. If I can snuggle with my sweet beagle-mix (Ellie) and get a little cross stitching in, I’m doubly happy.

 Chocolate Sea Salt Brownie Recipe

Makes One 8-Inch Pan

Some notes & Tips

Adapted from Joy of Baking, click here for the link

I use my vanilla bean sugar, but regular, white sugar will work just fine. If you use regular white sugar then bump up the vanilla extract to one teaspoon.

I use High Fat Dutch Process Cocoa from Penzeys Spices in this recipe. Use quality dark chocolate bars that you’d eat out of hand for this recipe too. Go for the good stuff here, both in the cocoa powder and the dark chocolate. The better the chocolate, the better the brownies. 

Ingredients

• 5 ounces of dark chocolate, chopped into small pieces 
• 1/2 cup of room temperature unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
• 3 tablespoons of cocoa powder 
• 1 cup of vanilla sugar or regular white sugar.
• 1/2 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract (Use one teaspoon of vanilla extract if using regular white sugar.)
• 3 large eggs, room temperature
• 3/4 cup of all purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon of fine grain sea salt
• Sprinkling of flaky or coarse sea salt   

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and place the rack in the center. Spray with nonstick cooking spray, butter or oil an 8 inch square baking pan and place a piece of parchment paper on the bottom of it. Oil, butter or spray the parchment paper too. 

In a microwave safe bowl, melt the chocolate and the butter in the microwave being careful not to burn the chocolate. Stop and stir it as it melts. It will take seconds to melt. Maybe a minute at most. When the chocolate and butter are melted, stir in the cocoa powder and sugar. Add the eggs, one and a time and incorporate them into the batter. Add the vanilla extract. Add the flour and fine sea salt and stir to combine.

Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and bake for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and quickly add a scant sprinkling of the coarse grain sea salt. Bake for about another 10 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a little bit of batter or moist crumbs on it.  Do not overbake or your brownies will be dry. Remove from the oven and immediately add another sprinkle of coarse sea salt.  

Sometimes I store them in the fridge in an airtight container. When I wanted one, I just warm it up in the microwave. 

Bon Appetite! xx ~ Jilly

A wonderful childrens book author illustrated my brownie recipe. Her name is Angela Demuro. She writes whimsical, beautifully illustrated books that your little ones will love. You can find her books on her website  www.angelademuro.blogspot.com or at  Amazon and Barnes & Noble