Tappan Hill Brownies

A very rich brownie recipe from The Bride and Groom's First Cookbook.

Ingredients:

• 8 oz semisweet baking chocolate* (Baker's or Ghirardelli)
• 2 oz unsweetened chocolate
• 8 oz (2 sticks) sweet butter
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1.5 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup plus 2 Tbsp sugar
• 1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract
• 1.5 cup semisweet chocolate morsels
• 1.5 cup chopped walnuts, optional

Directions:

*Here, we prefer solid chocolate to the morsels. The consistency of melted morsels tends to be gooey instead of smooth.

Preheat oven to 350° degrees. Grease a 8x11x2 inch baking pan and dust lightly with flour. Break the semisweet and unsweetened chocolate into 1-ounce pieces. Bring the butter to a boil in a heavy-bottomed saucepan. Add both chocolates and immediately remove from the heat. Stir until the chocolate melts completely.

Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl and set aside. Combine the eggs and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat until the mixture is very thick and forms ribbons when you lift the beaters away from the batter. Add the vanilla and blend lightly. Add the melted chocolate and mix lightly.

Gently fold the flour mixture into the chocolate batter with a spatula. Fold in the chocolate morsels and nuts. Spread the batter in the greased baking pan. Bake for 35-40 minutes. When done, a cake tester inserted into the center of the brownies will have a little batter clinging to it. Cool the brownies in the baking pan. Do not overbake the brownies. They are delicious when a little wet and "gooey." The brownies can be made 2 weeks ahead. Freeze, well-covered.

Makes 20 1.5" square brownies