Recipe: Perfect Anywhere Brownies

I love brownies but here in Tahiti I was never able to make them just right. The flour is somehow different, you can't get baker's chocolate or chocolate chips and nuts cost a fortune. So, I was very happy to find this, the most basic of recipes that gives the most splendid fudgy on the inside, crinkly and chewy on the outside brownie. The ingredients are so ordinary and this is so easy that you could make these just about anywhere on the planet. I could even make these out on Ahe where there isn't even a flushing toilet! Seriously, this is one for the road.

Now this is a fancy suggestion, and not useful if you're in the Sahara, a remote atoll or the like, but my husband has a wheat allergy so I tried these with gluten free flour (I use Bob's Red Mill All-Purpose GF Flour) and they were even chewier, gooier and delicious than usual. I usually make the brownies without chocolate chips/chunks or nuts because I don't have these available to me but the addition of either or both of these brings the whole brownie experience to another level. Enjoy!

The World's Easiest and Best Brownies

¾ cup butter

1 ½ cups sugar (I use raw sugar)

2 eggs

3 tsp vanilla, rum or very strong dark coffee (depending on what you have available - or nothing)

½ cup 100% cocoa (NOT hot chocolate mix, you need unsweetened pure chocolate cocoa)

¾ cup plain flour (NOT self-raising)

1 tsp salt

¾ cup nuts (optional)

½ cup chocolate chips or dark chocolate cut into small, coarse pieces (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and grease a 9 inch baking dish.

Melt the butter slowly in a medium sized saucepan. When it's melted, remove from heat and stir in sugar. Give it a few stirs and let the sugar dissolve into the cooling butter for a few minutes. Add in the eggs and vanilla (rum or coffee). Beat until smooth. Add the cocoa and flour (I crush all the lumps with a fork and haven't found I needed to sift) and stir for 1-2 minutes, until the batter is smooth and shiny. Stir in chocolate chips/chunks and/or nuts. Pour the batter into the baking dish and bake for about 20-25 minutes, until the top just begins to loose its liquid look. You're much better off undercooking these than overcooking so pay attention and keep checking on them - if you overcook them they'll get cake-like instead of fudgy.