Dark, Fudgy Muscovado Brownies

Soooo, while I continue to plan/navigate/avoid the next phase of my life, I’ve been doing a bit of baking.

Therefore, I was really happy to be sent a copy of Real Sweet by Shauna Sever a couple of weeks ago. (Shauna recently happened upon one of our videos. I think it was the "Use a Spoon!" one? Point being, she liked what she saw and offered up a copy of her book. Thank you, Shauna!) 48 hours after opening it, which is basically record timing in this post-Teddy era, I was making these brownies.

I really loved having a pan of them on our kitchen countertop for three days. They were the perfect mix of chocolate and sweet, which for me equates to very chocolatey and not that sweet. I’d cut myself a little rectangular piece in the late afternoon and then another one after dinner. 

Matt didn’t love this routine. After work, he’d lift the foil from the pan with an outraged, “C’mon, dude!” as if he’d had an exact mental image of the way the brownies looked before he left for work in the morning. But I'm pretty certain that each night, his after-dinner mega-portion trumped the sum of my two modest portions. (Modest brownie portion = kidding myself?)

Either way, hang in there, Matt! I’m definitely going to be making these again.

Completely unrelated: I was one of the few people who wasn't crazy about Tiny Beautiful Things, but I'm totally into the Dear Sugar podcast, particularly episodes 2 and 5. Anyone want to talk about it with me?

Dark, Fudgy Muscovado Brownies slightly adapted from Real Sweet

6 tablespoons unsalted butter

6 ounces bittersweet chocolate (60 to 70% cacao), chopped

3 tablespoons unsweetened natural cocoa powder

3/4 cup firmly packed dark muscovado sugar

3 tablespoons honey

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

2 large eggs, cold

1/2 cup whole wheat flour, spooned and leveled (The recipe called for whole wheat pastry flour, but regular whole wheat worked fine for me!)

Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350F. Line an 8x8-inch metal baking pan with parchment paper, leaving a few inches of overhang on two sides. Lightly grease the pan with nonstick cooking spray or butter.

In a large heatproof bowl, melt the butter and chocolate together in the microwave with 60-second bursts of high power, stirring well after each interval until smooth. Whisk in the cocoa powder. Whisk in the sugar, honey, vanilla extract, and salt until well blended (a few small lumps of sugar may remain--that's just the rough charm of dark muscovado!). Whisk in the eggs one at a time. Switch from a whisk to a spatula and add the flour, stirring gently just until no traces of flour remain. Set the batter aside to rest for 10 minutes. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. 

Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out mostly clean, with a smudge of chocolate at the end, and the brownie slab has just begun to pull away from the sides of the pan, about 30 minutes. Cool completely in the pan on a wire rack. Refrigerate for up to five days. (Or leave them on your countertop like I did for three?)