Recipe: Chocolate Butterscotch Brownies

 

My friend Mike had a birthday last week (Happy Birthday, Mike!), and when I asked him what he liked he gave me a pretty random laundry list of things that included chocolate and butterscotch.  This sparked a memory of a pan of brownies I made for a high school boyfriend years ago, so after hitting the internet I came up with the following recipe!  The best part is this recipe does not require a double boiler, electric mixer, or anything truly fancy.  If you are looking for very rich, sweet brownies, then mix it up and mix up a batch of these!

Chocolate Butterscotch Brownies

(Adapted from JoyofBaking.com)

5 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped (the finer you chop it, the easier it will be to melt.  You can use bittersweet as well!)

1/2 cup butter, cut into pieces (I used salted to contrast with the butterscotch, but many people prefer unsalted)

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

1 cup sugar (I don't like white sugar so I used Sugar in the Raw)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 eggs

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup butterscotch chips (yum!)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and place the rack in the center of the oven.  Butter an 8" square pan and lightly dust it with flour.  (I actually used a larger pan, and made it smaller with some foil as you can see from the picture.  They turned out just fine!)

Melt the chocolate and butter in a large stainless steel bowl placed over a saucepan of simmering water.  Remove from heat (use mitts!) and stir in the cocoa powder and sugar.  Next, whisk in the vanilla extract and the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Finally, stir in the flour, salt, and butterscotch chips.

Pour into the prepared pan and bake for about 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick (or fork, in my case) inserted into the center comes out with a little batter and a few moist clumps clinging to it.  This is because it will continue to cook after you remove it from the oven, so if you wait until the fork comes out clean you'll actually be overcooking your brownies.  Remove from oven and let cool.  Eat and enjoy!!