The brownies cooling before we sliced them up!

Last Thursday, I left work early to take my daughter to ballet class.  She did not want to go to the class and after a long discussion (she had pretty clear and valid reasons for not wanting to go…), I decided we should get back in the car.  She said she wanted to go home and cook.  My four-year old repeatedly has told me recently that she wants to be a chef and get her ingredients from the farmer’s market (we have trained her well…). My heart melts every time she says it!  (On a side note, she also made me a purse this week from scratch (and felt and yarn and a cool bead) that she said I should use to take my special things to Adesso.  I melted again.)

We had dinner plans that night with a friend of hers and his mom, but we managed to whip up some incredible brownies.  My daughter pretty much did everything that did not involve the burners or the stove (I admire her ambition and excitement but am not crazy!  She is only four years old!).  We used the recipe below (adapted from the Dark chocolate brownies with white chocolate chunks recipe in Barbara Fairchild’s The Bon Appétit Fast Easy Fresh Cookbook):

Dark Chocolate Brownies with Chocolate Chips

Makes 16 (To ensure brownies turn out moist, only bake until a tester comes out with moist crumbs attached.)

Ingredients:

4 ounces semisweet chocolate chips

6 Tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter

2/3 cup all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

5 ounces semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees Farenheit. Butter a 9-inch spring form pan (or other baking pan). Stir chocolate and butter in heavy medium saucepan over low heat until melted and smooth.  Cool to room temperature.

2. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl.  Whisk the sugar, eggs and vanilla in a medium bowl until the mixture is very thick, about 3 minutes. Whisk in the melted chocolate mixture, the flour mixture.  Stir in the chocolate chips.  Transfer to prepared baking pan.

3. Bake the brownies until the tester inserted into the center comes out with moist crumbs attached (approximately 28 minutes depending on your oven).  Transfer brownies in the pan to a rack and cool completely before cutting into squares (or diamonds as we did!).

Enjoy!

She and I have done some other cooking this week and I will continue to post some of our favorite recipes and meals.  Buon appetito!