I LOVE brownies…and apparently so do bears! To make a long story short…. Years ago I took a batch of these fabulous brownies on a camping trip at Redfish Lake. The campground host warned everyone about bears & instructed us all to lock our food/coolers in our vehicles. If a bear was spotted we were supposed to scare it away by setting off the car alarm. In the middle of the night I heard a car horn honking, but thought nothing of it. I figured someone was trying to scare a bear! Turns out the bear had broken our driver’s side window & was climbing in & out of the car (hitting the horn in the process) to get at all of our food! In addition to eating our cheese & lunch meat, the bear polished off an entire pan of these brownies! I still have the pan complete with a puncture hole from either a tooth or claw to prove it! Bake a batch for your next outing…but watch out for bears! 🙂
Ingredients
- 1/3 c cocoa powder
- 1-1/2 t instant espresso or coffee (optional)
- 1/2 c + 2 T boiling water
- 2 oz unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped (see NOTES below for substitution)
- 4 T unsalted butter, melted
- 1/2 c + 2 T canola oil (I also use olive oil)
- 3 eggs
- 2 t vanilla extract
- 2 c sugar
- 1-3/4 c flour
- 3/4 t salt
- 6 oz bittersweet chocolate, cut into 1/2″ pieces (or chocolate chips)
Adjust oven rack to lowest position & heat to 350 deg.
Whisk cocoa, espresso powder & boiling water together in alrge bowl until smooth. Add unsweetened chocolate & whisk until chocolate is melted. Whisk in melted butter & oil (mixture may look curdled). Add eggs & vanilla & whisk until smooth & homogeneous. Whisk in sugar. Add flour & salt & mix until combined. Fold in bittersweet chocolate pieces.
Scrape batter into 13 x 9″ baking pan & bake until toothpick inserted halfway between edge & center comes out w/ just a few moist crumbs attached, 30 – 35 min. Transfer pan to wire rack & cool 1-1/2 hrs.
Cut into squares & serve. Enjoy!
NOTES:
- I almost NEVER have unsweetened chocolate on hand. An great substitution for 1 oz unsweetened chocolate is 1 T cocoa powder + 3 T oil. So, this recipe would need 2 t cocoa + 6 T oil.
