The Best Classic Brownie Recipe

the book noted that these days when one buys a brownie, one often gets a dense, decadent block of confection that, while delicious, is really more of an over-the-top indulgence rather than a classic, everyday brownie. i have to agree with them on that point. the brownie that this recipe is trying to master is, in their words, "more bake sale than upscale cafe." but they wanted an intense chocolate flavor, texture between fudge and cake, not greasy with too much butter nor gritty with too much flour. the key breakthroughs they had with this recipe included using only unsweetened chocolate, cake flour instead of all-purpose flour, and (if you're adding the optional pecans or walnuts) to toast them first for maximum flavor and add them to the top of the batter rather incorporating them into the batter. this, they say, prevents them from becoming soft. the lone modification i made is that i didn't use cake flour. neither of the big grocery stores in my town carry it, and i never think to get it when in another town, cake flour being something i rarely need or think about. i've always used the substitute recipe of 1 c. cake flour = 1 c. minus 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour, and that's what i did here. the result? perfect, or at least, as near as i've come. i've eaten hundreds of brownies--you know, to prepare me for this moment--and while some may have been better, they couldn't have been by much. maddog has made a lot of great brownies, but most of them are tricked up (not that there's anything wrong with that). for plain ol' classic chocolate brownies, i think i'm gonna just stick with this recipe. actually, you know the main reason it's the best recipe? 'cause you get to make a whole freakin' 13x9 inch pan's worth, instead of the miserly 8x8 inch pan most recipes call for :)

(oh, the the brownie in the photo may seem like a particularly large portion, but that was merely to get the right composition for the photograph. i'd never actually eat such a large brownie, of course, especially not with a little vanilla ice cream.)