Cake of the Week: The Perfect Brownies

Single people wonder, does "the one" even exist??? This spring I was beginning to despair. After so many off experiences -- too many that were just not quite right, and a few that were straight-up wrong -- I had lost all but a modicum of hope, and was about to throw in the proverbial towel and give up the literal chase.

But the best things happen when you're not expecting them, right? One spring afternoon SpeedyKate connected us via email and all of a sudden my life changed. This experience has been 27 years in the making, but it has finally come.

THE PERFECT BROWNIE RECIPE.

All the ones that came before have been forgotten, swept away by the rich chocolately excellence of these brownies, and forever banished from my contact list. We all know the bad ones -- ones that promise to be great but end up too dry, or too cake-y, or not chocolate-y enough, and all too often more work than they're worth.

These brownies are none of those things. It should be easy, right? (That's what they say.) They're so simple you barely have to think about it when you're making them, and so good that you cannot stop thinking about them once you've eaten them.

So without further ado, I share my new love with you.

The Perfect Brownies

Ingredients: 

• Butter or spray for greasing the pan
• Flour, for dusting the buttered pan
• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 8 ounces melted butter
• 11/4 cups cocoa
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup chopped pecans (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Thoroughly butter and flour a 9x13" pan. (Just FYI, I've made this recipe twice and the first time was in too small of a pan so the brownies were much thicker and that's what the pictures in this blog post come from. But I recommend using a 9x13" pan.)
2. In a large bowl, beat the eggs until fluffy and light yellow. Beat in both sugars. Add remaining ingredients, and mix to combine.
3. Pour the batter into the greased and floured pan and bake for 40 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.
4. These will be messy coming out of the pan -- I recommend waiting until they're completely cool (like a couple hours) before you try to cut. Run your knife under hot water for a clean cut.