Have you ever had a sudden urge to kill yourself with an overload of chocolate and sugar?  I’m assuming many of us have considering the allure of a recipe that boasts a death by chocolate.  Well, my friends, I have found it.  I’ve found that blissful death and am here to share it with you.

I doubt you remember me asking in a previous post for ideas and recipes for homemade brownies that are as good as my favorite store-bought mix.  I say that I doubt you remembering it because I got no replies on it.  *giggle* oh the pain of being a pee-on blogger!

Well screw you guys because I found the answer on my own!  Boy did I ever!

When I first set out to find a perfect homemade brownie, I turned to Ina Garten because I almost always love her recipes.  They are decadent and gorgeous and I really thought she could knock my socks off with a good brownie recipe.  For the most part, I was really wrong.  Only for the most part.  It only took a little imagination, a few tweaks to the recipe and I got an “OMG THIS IS EFFING AMAZING” brownie made from scratch in my own tiny kitchen.  You can find the recipe that I used here, but I’ll give you the recipe containing the changes that I made to it.

Ina’s Peanut Swirl Brownies à la Somer

An Ina Garten (Barefoot Contessa) Recipe Slightly Changed By Me

1 pound unsalted butter (butter and margarine are NOT interchangeable here.  It has to be BUTTER)

1 pound plus 12 oz. semisweet chocolate chips, divided

6 oz. unsweetened chocolate

6 eggs (Ina always specifies extra large, but I always just use large and it’s FINE, I promise)

1 teaspoon instant coffee granules (Ina’s recipe calls for 3 Tablespoons, but it’s just too much.  A little dab will do ya)

2 Tablespoons pure vanilla extract

2-1/4 cups sugar

1-1/4 cups AP flour, divided

1 Tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 375 degreen F.    Butter and flour a rectangular 9X13 cake pan (Ina’s recipe calls for a shallow sheet pan, but these brownies need to be THICK!  They’re about 1-1/2 inches thick and moist and dense and wonderful).

Melt together the butter, 1 pound of chocolate chips, and the unsweetened chocolate in a medium bowl over simmering water.  Allow to cool slightly.

In a large bowl stir, don’t beat, together the eggs, coffee granules, vanilla and sugar.  Stir the warm chocolate mixture into the egg mixture and allow to cool to room temperature.

In a medium bowl sift together 1 cup of flour, the baking powder and salt.  Add to the cooled chocolate mixture. Toss the remaining 12 ounces of chocolate chips in a medium bowl with 1/4 cup of flour, then add them to the chocolate batter. Pour into the prepared pan.

Bake for 20 minutes, then rap the baking sheet against the oven shelf to force the air to escape from between the pan and the brownie dough.  Bake for another 20 minutes and then start checking every 5 minutes until the toothpick comes out clean.  I have to be honest, I haven’t got the time down 100% yet as I’ve only made it twice, but just keep checking and it does eventually get done and the brownies are SO worth it.

In Ina’s original recipe she swirls peanut butter through the brownies.  It’s good this way but I didn’t want the peanut butter with the Icing I’m going to add.  It wouldn’t have been a good match, but feel free to try the recipe with the peanut butter because it really is quite delightful.

As if these dense, fudgy lumps of chocolate orgasm weren’t enough, I iced them with a rocky road cake icing.  The recipe comes from an older cookbook that I took from my mother and I always thought that this particular icing would be awesome on brownies…more so than if it were on a cake.  I was right.  Really right.

Rocky Road Frosting

The Illustrated Encyclopedia of American Cooking (1986)

1 6-oz. package semisweet chocolate morsels

¼ cup butter

2-1/2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar

3 Tblsp. scalded milk

1 tsp. vanilla

1 egg

1 cup chopped walnuts (I used almonds.  My husband is allergic to walnuts.  Pecans would work too.)

1-1/2 cup miniature marshmallows

Melt chocolate over hot, not boiling water.  Combine butter, sugar, milk and vanilla in mixing bowl; beat in egg.  (Here I put the bowl containing the butter sugar and egg over the double boiler and just got it warm so that the egg isn’t totally raw.  You can take the chance, but I suggest you get that egg warm and stir CONSTANTLY so it doesn’t curdle.)  Add chocolate, stirring until blended.  Stir in walnuts and marshmallows.  YIELD:  frosting for two 8 or 9-inch layer cakes.

Just ice the brownies with this lumpy, bumpy, gooey mess of sugar and enjoy.  These are so freaking good you will not want to buy boxed brownies anymore….until you see the mess in your kitchen from making this.  Seriously, it’s messy.  But worth it, I promise.

Enjoy!