Foodie: Outrageous Brownies ala Ina Garten

I'm a Food Network fan and, whenever I can on weekends, I make it a point to watch Ina Garten's Barefoot Contessa.

photo from here

I just love how she makes entertaining look so easy. Her dishes look so yummy and presentation so simple yet elegant. I enjoy throwing parties and as I have mentioned in my profile - experimenting on dishes with my friends and family as my tasters (a.k.a guinea pigs).

So this weekend, I tried her Outrageous Brownies recipe. It was easy - not as easy as the boxed brownies of course - but still easy as long as you have all the required ingredients. The coffee in her recipe made a huge difference in bringing out more of that chocolate flavor. I used the silicon pans lined with wax paper and Pam's oil free baking spray with flour which made taking them out of the pans even easier. The result was pretty good! ;-)

Will I bake it again from scratch? Probably since I can control the amount of sugar I put in it =)

Here's the recipe taken from Food Network:

Outrageous Brownies
The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook

Ingredients:

• 1 pound unsalted butter
• 1 pound plus 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips, divided
• 6 ounces unsweetened chocolate
• 6 extra-large eggs
• 3 tablespoons instant coffee powder
• 2 tablespoons real vanilla extract
• 2 1/4 cups sugar
• 1 ¼ cups flour, divided
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 3 cups diced walnut pieces

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 13 by 18 by 1 1/2-inch sheet pan.

Melt together the butter, chocolate chips, and unsweetened chocolate on top of a double boiler. Cool slightly. Stir together the eggs, instant coffee, vanilla and sugar. Stir in the warm chocolate mixture and cool to room temperature.

Stir together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add to cooled chocolate mixture. Toss the walnuts and chocolate chips with flour to coat. Then add to the chocolate batter. Pour into prepared pan.

Bake for about 30 minutes, or until tester just comes out clean.

Halfway through the baking, rap the pan against the oven shelf to allow air to escape from between the pan and the brownie dough. Do not over bake! Cool thoroughly, refrigerate well and cut into squares.

Brownies anyone? Would you try something from scratch knowing you can buy them as ready to bake?

Happy Monday lovelies!