Double Chocolate and Maple Brownies

Dear Readers,

Thank you so much for clicking on this post! I hope you enjoy making and eating this fudgy little brownies as much as I did. They are completely from scratch, and you don't need any chocolate chips (Except as an add in.) The inclusion of chocolate chips is incredibly unnecessary, in fact, cocoa powder helps create the fudgy center I talked about earlier. I will admit that without the chips these are not actually double chocolate brownies.

On your mark!

Get set!

Bake!

-Maya

Ingredients:

• Oil, for greasing the pan (Not shown)*
• 10 tablespoons unsalted butter (If you use salted butter, just don't add as much salt to the recipe)
• 3/4 cup maple syrup, plus more to taste
• 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons cacao powder (Natural or dutch processed)
• 1/8 teaspoon salt (Sea or table salt)
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 large, cold eggs
• 1/2 cup all purpose or rice flour
• 2/3 cup chocolate chips (semi-sweet or unsweetened work best)*

Equipment

• 8x8 inch square metal pan OR silicone muffin tray
• Large baking sheet*
• Parchment paper*
• Medium saucepan
• Medium bowl
• Wooden spoon
• Fork

*Optional

Position an oven rack in the center of the oven, preheat to to 325 degrees F. Line a 8x8 inch square pan with parchment paper OR lightly grease 9 muffin tins. If using muffin tins, place them on a large metal baking sheet.

Make a double boiler by filling a saucepan about 2 inches high with water and heating until barely simmering. Turn the heat to low.

Cut the butter into smaller pieces and put it in the medium bowl, add the maple syrup, cacao powder, and salt.

Place the bowl over the saucepan and gently stir the contents until the butter has melted and the maple syrup and cacao powder have mixed*.

Take off the heat and let cool until you can stick your finger in it without getting burnt, about 5 minutes.

*The maple syrup and cacao powder don't bind without oil. Be patient, wait until the butter is mostly melted before mixing.

Gently stir in the vanilla.

Add the eggs, one at a time. After you crack the eggs in, break the yolk up with a fork, then stir thoroughly. You do not want any clumps of egg whites floating around in your batter.

Stir in the flour, little bit at a time. Use a spatula to push runaway chocolate and flour back into the bowl. With these brownies, you want to over stir, it helps the batter get nice and thick. When you can run the spoon through the batter and it takes a minute to fill in the canyon you created, you can stop stirring.

Gently roll the chocolate chips in a small amount of flour before stirring them into the batter.

Spoon the batter into the prepared 8x8 inch square pan OR the 9 muffin tins. Place them in the oven.

If using a 8x8 inch pan, bake for 20-30 minutes.

If you use the muffin tins, as shown in the picture, bake them for about 18-22 minutes.

To check them, stick a toothpick into the center. If the toothpick comes out really gooey, stick them back in for about three more minutes. If the toothpick comes out with a few crumbs on it, their done.

Take them out of the oven and let cool completely, DO NOT skip this part, it is crucial!

Once cool, take them out of the muffin tins, or slice them into about 16 brownies.

Done!