Mocha Fudge Brownies

Eating kale for dinner is so righteous that homemade brownies are the only appropriate response for dessert.

Since only 1 of us eats sweets, I halved the New York Times Essential recipe. I left out the nuts and added espresso to intensify the bitterness of the chocolate.

After years of making “healthy” brownies, it was a treat to see that crisp and shiny glass-like top layer yield to a rich and dense, barely cake-like center. Yogurt brownies, these are not.

Ingredients
2 oz bittersweet chocolate (I used Ghiardelli 60% cacao chips)
3 T butter
1 large egg
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup mixed ap and ww flour
1 ts vanilla
1 T + 1.5 ts instant espresso
1/8 ts coarse salt

Method
1. Preheat oven to 350 and line the smallest baker you can find (mine is 3x6, but better would be anything that measures 12 square inches) with parchment paper, allowing the paper to come up on 2 opposite sides.

2. Melt chocolate and butter over low heat. Remove from heat, add espresso powder and mix well.

3. In medium bowl beat egg with sugar until sugar is dissolved. Add melted chocolate, flour, vanilla and salt. Mix well.

4. Pour into prepared baker and bake for 20 minutes, until toothpick comes out pretty clean. 

5. Remove brownies from pan by lifting parchment paper sides. Cool completely on wire rack before cutting into 8 squares.