This is a flourless chocolate cake masquerading in brownie form.
These brownies get a triple-dose of deep fudge-y flavor from dark chocolate, bittersweet chocolate, and unsweetened cocoa powder mixed with a hearty amount of butter.
The batter is enriched with whipped eggs and sugar until it resembles chocolate mousse in texture.
The whole thing gets baked for a scant 25 minutes, then cooled for 10—if you can stand to wait that long.
They’re moist and dense and should satisfy anybody’s chocolate craving. Serve them with topped with homemade creme chantilly or rich vanilla ice cream and cups of espresso.
Flourless Chocolate Brownies: Make them gluten free!
A few of my close friends have recently discovered that they can’t eat gluten.
Now, I’ve tried a bunch of the pre-made brownie and cake mixes that are out there, but none have been able to produce the dense, rich chocolate flavor and texture that they were missing. And none of them seemed remotely homemade.
These brownies get the job done—and then some. Just make sure that all your ingredients are labeled “Gluten Free.” (Please note that some of the chocolate I used in this recipe, while it doesn’t contain gluten, is manufactured in a facility that uses wheat.)
I’m not remotely an expert on gluten-free cooking. There are a ton of great gluten-free blogs out there. Check out Trav’s Gone Gluten Free, which is one of my favs. (He’s funny, smart, and gives you a ton of great info, recipes, and links.)
Flourless Chocolate Brownies: A note on chocolate
Use any combination of good, dark chocolate that you like. Just make sure that you wind up with 10 oz. total.
I used two 3.5-oz. bars Green & Black’s Organic Dark Chocolate, 70% cocoa content and three 1-oz. blocks of unsweetened Baker’s Chocolate (the kind you can find at most U.S. supermarkets). For the cocoa, I used Ghirardelli Unsweetened Cocoa.
Flourless Chocolate Brownies: Get to the recipe already, Mouse!
Yep, yep! Here you go.
Flourless Chocolate Brownies
7 oz. dark chocolate, about 70% cocoa
3 oz. unsweetened baker’s chocolate
11 Tbls. butter, cut into smallish dice
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
4 jumbo eggs
1 cup sugar
powdered sugar, for dusting
spray oil
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Fill a pot with a half-an-inch of water and set it on the stove over high heat to boil.
Flourless Chocolate Brownies: Prep your pan
I used a 7 x 11 inch pan, but you can also use an 8 x 10 inch pan. Just keep an eye on your brownies near the end of their cooking time.
Spritz your pan lightly with spray oil. Cut a piece of parchment paper to about the size of your pan. (This is kind of a pain, but definitely don’t skip this step. It make the brownies an absolute breeze to get out.)
Set the paper over your pan, then press it down. The oil will help it stick.
If your paper hangs over a bunch, just give it a little trim with a pair of scissors.
You want your finished pan to look about like this:
Don’t make yourself crazy with this. If the paper is a little uneven and bubbly, that’s just fine.
Flourless Chocolate Brownies: Melt the chocolate and butter
Break up the chocolate into pieces and put it in a large, heatproof bowl. (The bowl should be big enough that it can comfortably sit on top of your pot of boiling water.)
When the water in your pot is boiling, set the bowl on top of the pot, like this:
When you’ve seated the bowl on top of the pot, drop the heat down to medium-low. This will keep the water simmering, without boiling over.
The chocolate should immediately start to melt from the steam in the pot.
Stir the chocolate occasionally until it melts completely. This should happen fairly quickly.
When it’s melted completely, it should look about like this:
Toss in the diced butter.
Stir constantly to combine and melt.
When it’s totally melted, it should look about like this:
Turn the heat off. Take your bowl off the stove (be careful, it’ll be dripping with hot water) and set it on the counter.
Toss in the cocoa powder.
Stir to combine. Break up any lumps of cocoa with a spatula.
Set the bowl aside to cool while you deal with the eggs and sugar.
Flourless Chocolate Brownies: Whip the eggs and sugar together
Put the eggs in the bowl of a mixer. (You can also totally use a hand-held mixer or regular whisk for this.)
Fit your mixer with the whisk attachment and whip the eggs until they’re well scrambled.
Turn off them mixer. Toss in the sugar.
Whip the eggs and sugar together until they about double in volume.
You want them to look about like this:
Your mixture should be light, fluffy, and full of bubbles�but still be pretty thin, like this:
Flourless Chocolate Brownies: Make the brownie batter
By now, your melted chocolate should be warm, not super hot. (If it’s too hot, the eggs could scramble when you add them in.)
Pour the egg/sugar mixture into the melted chocolate.
With a spatula, fold the eggs into the chocolate. Do this gently, so you don’t knock too much air out of the eggs. (The air bubbles help give the brownies their poof.)
If you’re not sure how to fold the eggs and chocolate together, this Epicurious video does a great job of explaining the technique.
When the eggs and chocolate are fully combined, your batter should look about like this, and have the consistency of chocolate mousse:
Flourless Chocolate Brownies: Bake & cool
Pour the batter into your prepared pan.
With a rubber spatula, smooth the surface of the batter a little to even it out.
Pop the pan into your preheated oven. Bake at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes.
They’re done when they’re firm on the edges, here:
But still a little soft in the center, here:
Let them rest in the pan for 10 minutes when you take them out of the oven.
After 10 minutes, grab the edges of the parchment paper and lift the brownies out of the baking pan. (Get an even hold on the paper, so the brownies don’t crack.)
Set the brownies, paper and all, on a sheet pan or the counter to finish cooling.
Serve and enjoy!
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Copyright 2008-2009 The Hungry Mouse�/Jessica B. Konopa. All rights reserved.
