Chocolate Chunk Fudge Brownies

Heat the oven to 350°F. Grease an 8×8 pan and set it aside.

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat and add the cocoa. Whisk until smooth. Add the sugar and whisk until blended. Add 1 egg and whisk until just blended. Whisk in the second egg and vanilla until just blended. Set aside.

Mix the salt and flour together in a small bowl. Sprinkle the flour mixture over the chocolate mixture and stir with a rubber spatula until just blended. Add the chopped chocolate and stir until combined.

Scrape the batter into the prepared baking pan and spread evenly. Scatter the nuts evenly over the batter, if using. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with small, gooey clumps of brownie sticking to it, 33 to 38 minutes. (Mine were done at 35 minutes). Transfer the baking dish to a cooling rack and let cool completely.

Run a knife around the edges of the brownie and then pry it from the pan in one piece. Using a sharp knife, cut the cooled brownie into three equal strips and cut each strip into four equal pieces to make 12 pieces. The cooler the brownie is, the cleaner the cutting will be, but these fudgy brownies will always leave some sticky crumbs on the knife.

Notes:
– I adapted this recipe from Fine Cooking’s brownie recipe, but I cut the sugar content way down because people were saying it was way too sweet. The original recipe had 1 2/3 cup of sugar, I used 1 1/4 cup.
– I used only 1/2 cup of chocolate chip to the batter instead of 1 cup.
– I combined walnuts and pecans to sprinkle on top.