My liquor of choice: bourbon. My chocolate fix of choice: brownies. I think you can see where this is going.
This brownie adaptation comes from the brilliant guys at “Baked”, with locations both in Brooklyn, NY and Charleston, SC.
I have a couple of different brownie recipes I reach for depending on the need. This particular recipe is an all-around good pick because the brownies have an intense chocolate flavor that is perfectly complimented with a melt-in-your-mouth texture, due to a generous proportion of butter and eggs.
Most brownie recipes call for (or benefit from) a little bit of pure vanilla extract. In this case, I decided to use bourbon instead. Like vanilla extract, it’s very subtle in this recipe, but it rounds out the chocolate flavor nicely. Rum or kahlua would also work nicely. And you can always use vanilla extract as well.
Many of my mountain friends have tried making brownies up here and been unsuccessful, and frustrated. Please allow this recipe to make you a believer of happy high altitude baking outcomes!
How to make this high altitude recipe:
Chocolate Bourbon Brownies (adapted from Baked by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito)
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons dark unsweetened cocoa powder
11 oz dark chocolate (60-72% cacao), coarsely chopped
2 sticks (8 oz) butter, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
5 eggs
2 tablespoons bourbon
Preheat your oven to 350 F. Line a 9 x 13-inch pan with aluminum foil and coat generously with butter or baking spray.
Whisk together the flour, salt, and cocoa powder. In a pot over low heat, melt the chocolate and butter together, stirring the whole time to distribute the heat and prevent burning. Chocolate burns very easily, so use care. Remove from the heat once the mixture is smooth.
To the melted butter and chocolate, add the sugar and brown sugar. Whisk in three of the eggs until combined. Add the remaining two eggs and whisk until combined. Add the bourbon and stir to combine. Do not overbeat the batter at the this stage or you will get cakey brownies, rather than the fudgy kind this recipe seeks to achieve.
Sprinkle the flour mixture over the batter and use a spatula to fold the flour mixture into the chocolate until just a tiny trace of flour mixture is still visible.
Pour the batter into your prepared pan and bake in the oven for about 20-25 minutes until the brownies are just set. A toothpick inserted in the center will come out with a few moist crumbs sticking to it. Let the brownies cool completely.
