the brownie at baked (a bakery in red hook, brooklyn) has got quite a pedigree. its one of oprah’s favorite things, and got voted best brownie on the Today show and the venerable America’s Test Kitchen. the folks at baked credit Lesli Heffler-Flick for having developed the recipe. it’s super chocolatey, moist and dense.
a few months back, hubby and i took a mini road trip to check out baked in red hook. we bought a slice of cake and a pre-packaged brownie. i really wanted to try their salt brownie but they were out of stock that day. alas! the past week, i finally got around to baking up their brownie recipe at home and sprinkling on a touch of salt — i didn’t have sea salt, but i did have a jar of pink himalayan salt in my pantry.
i don’t know if it was the just-out-of-the-oven freshness or the addition of salt, but the brownie really knocked my socks off! i highly recommend whipping up this recipe at home.
The Baked Brownie with Pink Himalayan Salt
(makes about 24 square or 32 rectangular brownies in a 9×13 inch baking pan; adapted from Baked – New Frontiers in Baking; as with all things, i’ve reduced the sugar quantity from the original)
| Flour | 1 ¼ cups |
| Salt | 1 tsp |
| Unsweetened Cocoa Powder | 2 tbsp |
| Dark chocolate couverture | 11 oz |
| Butter | 1 cup (2 sticks) |
| Instant espresso powder | 1 tsp |
| Sugar | 1 ¼ cups |
| Light Brown sugar | ¼ cup |
| Eggs | 5 large ones @ room temp |
| Vanilla Extract | 2 tsp |
| Himalayan Pink Salt | Sprinkle for taste |
- Pre-heat oven to 350ºF. Butter a 9×13 inch baking pan, line bottom with parchment paper and butter on top of the paper.
- Melt chocolate, butter and instant espresso powder in the bowl of your stand mixer by place it over a hot water bath. Stir until completely melted and smooth.
- Add the sugar to the chocolate mixture. Stir until well-combined.
- Fit the bowl with the chocolate mixture into your stand mixer and continue to stir using the paddle attachment until it is a room temperature.
- Add 3 eggs to the chocolate mixture one at a time.
- Add in vanilla. Mix until well combined.
- Whisk together flour, salt and cocoa in a separate bowl. Then fold the flour mixture into the chocolate mixture using a rubber spatula. [Ok, you can actually cheat here. I just put the flour mixture direct into the bowl of my stand mixer and turned it down to the lowest speed. I let it mix for about 15 seconds — some bits of flours were still visible — before turning off the machine, and pouring the batter into a prepared pan].
- The batter is quite thick. Pour it into a prepared pan and smooth the top with your spatula.
- Baked for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
- When cool, invert from pan and slice into desired shapes.
Baked
359 Van Brunt Street
Brooklyn, New York 11231
Tel: 718.222.0345
