I’m always working on my brownie-game. Whether I am actually making brownies at home, or eating them outside my kitchen (preferably here, where, I would posit, NYC’s best brownie is currently being made), I’ve constantly got brownies on the mind.
And with such a brownie preoccupation, it was only a matter of time before I tackled Alice Medrich’s infamous cocoa brownies. The brownies are special because they don’t call for melted chocolate and, instead, cocoa powder supplies all of their chocolate flavor. Much is written about why this makes these brownies so fudge-y, deeply chocolate-y, and delicious, and look here if you’d like to read all about it. 
In playing with Medrich’s original recipe, I twisted and tweaked to make the assembly of the brownies easier, and more like the assembly of the infamous baked brownie (no more stirring of cocoa powder and butter in a double boiler over the stovetop) and because I always see the need for brown sugar and its slightly molasses-y flavor in my baking, I substituted light brown sugar, for most of the granulated. 
Oh, and salt. I added extra salt to the batter and in the form of a sprinkle on top, as salt plus sweet equals perfect (at least in my book). Oh, and Dutch process cocoa powder, as opposed to natural cocoa powder. Some claim either works in a cocoa brownie, but I gotta put my foot down on this one – Dutch process is a must both for the deeply dark color it imparts, and the flavor. Alice Medrich’s original cocoa brownies are amazing, of course, as is. This is just my humble, uber tasty, take on them, as tweaking amazing treats is kind of my thing . . .
Fudgy/Chewy Cocoa Brownies
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups Dutch process cocoa powder sifted after measuring
- 1 tsp table salt
- 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 sticks unsalted butter melted
- 2 cups light brown sugar
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 4 eggs
- Flaky Sea Salt for sprinkling
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Spray a 13x9x2-inch pan with non-stick cooking spray and line with parchment. Spray the paper and set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together the cocoa powder, flour and salt. Set aside.
- Add the sugars to a large bowl with the melted butter and whisk vigorously to combine. Add the eggs, all at once, and very gently whisk the eggs into the butter and sugar mixture, until combined. Whisking gently is key. Add the dry ingredients all at once and using a rubber spatula, gently fold the dry into the wet, until no visible flour remains.
- Transfer the batter to the prepared pan, and sprinkle with the flaky sea salt. Bake for about 25 minutes, rotating the pan after 12 minutes, and testing it with a cake tester at 20. The brownies are ready when a cake tester comes out with a few moist crumbs - do not over bake!!
- Let the brownies cool on a rack until room temperature. Freeze them briefly before cutting, as this makes for cleaner squares. Serve with glasses of milk.
Bars are the best and I’ve got plenty more where this recipe came from!