Tartine Brownies or The Most Amazing Brownies You Will Ever Have

I came across this recipe on the Divine Baking Blog and I am forever grateful! The author declares these as the best brownie ever and and her search for the perfect brownie has (probably) ended.

These bad boys contain a POUND of chocolate. Yep. You read that correctly. A pound!

I had no clue what the word "tartine" meant, so a a quick search revealed Tartine is a world-renowned bakery in the Mission District in San Francisco.

This recipe comes from one of their many recipe books.

Here's the recipe followed by my glitches and then redemption.

NOTE: The brownies are ready even when tester comes out wet.

Tartine Brownies Recipe:
3/4 cup butter
1 pound bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
5 large eggs
2 cups brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups nuts, optional for topping

Preheat the oven to 350F. Butter a 9-by-13-inch glass baking dish.
In a small saucepan, melt the butter over low heat. Remove from the heat and add the chocolate. If the heat from the butter does not fully melt the chocolate, put the pan back over the heat for 10 seconds and stir until melted. Set aside to cool.

Sift the flour into a small mixing bowl. Set aside. In a medium mixing bowl, combine the eggs, sugar, salt, and vanilla. Using a mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat on high speed until the mixture thickens and becomes pale in color and falls from the beater in a wide ribbon that folds back on itself and slowly dissolves on the surface, 4 to 5 minutes. Using a rubber spatula, fold the cooled chocolate into the egg mixture. Add the flour and fold it in quickly but gently with the rubber spatula so that you don’t deflate the air that’s been incorporated into the eggs.

Pour the batter into the prepared dish and smooth the top with a spatula. If you are using nuts, evenly distribute them across the batter. Bake until the top looks slightly cracked and feels soft to the touch, about 25 minutes. Let cool completely on a wire rack.

Using a sharp knife, cut into 12 squares, or size desired. The brownies will keep in an airtight container in a cool place for up to 1 week.

I did not have bittersweet chocolate on hand - I am one of those that tends to believe chocolate that is less sweet than semi-sweet is blasphemous. So I took out my scale and weighed 16 ounces of semi-sweet Tollhouse morsels .

The recipe also calls for a lot of mixing (on high!) of the egg/butter mixture. This is extremely important to get lots and lots of air into the mixture. Sometimes air is good, sometimes it's bad in a recipe. Follow the directions! Mixing in the chocolate and flour was a bit scary - I didn't want to lose all that air!

My pan was also too small - time to go pan shopping! (My husband will love me.) It was a glass pan but was only 8 x 12 (I think). I used it anyway and fretted the entire time.

I also doused the top with walnuts. I love crunch!

After the 25 minutes was up they looked like they might be done - it was tough to see any cracking through the walnuts, although I sorta did, and they were pulling away from the edges so I removed them anyway. After sitting for a few minutes I decided to try cutting them into squares. I began scoring the top with a knife and realized the center was pure goo. Not good. I almost started to cry and knew I had to walk away to gain my composure - and probably rescue a child off of a nightstand somewhere.

Then I thought, hey I can just put those back in the oven. Might as well. If it goes bad, then it's no more of a loss than right now with completely uncooked brownies. So I reheated the oven and threw them back in there. Set the timer for another 25 minutes, based only on a feeling. When the timer went off I raised it again another five - don't mess with me you Undone Brownies!

Took them out, cooled a bit, then cut them. They were perfect. Shew!

Although a warm brownie seems like a dream come true, I have to say I was pretty much scooping out crumbly hot brownie crumbs and burning the entire inside of my mouth, refusing to spit it out and risk wasting such a perfect specimen of brownie. But when I came home later and they had completely cooled, they stayed together much better and were able to be enjoyed by all - and again at 9:30 this morning, they are perfect!