Brownie Bake-off: Ruth Reichl's Artpark Brownies

This summer's Brownie Bake-off continues with a suggestion by Al Dente reader sbz to try Ruth Reichl's Artpark Brownies. I'm a huge fan of Reichl and her memoirs, Tender at the Bone, Comfort Me with Apples, and Garlic and Sapphires. This Artpark Brownie recipe was included in the first of the trilogy, Tender at the Bone.

If you have a stand mixer, this recipe is super fast and easy. Because the eggs are beaten so long, Artpark Brownies are double the height of ordinary brownies, but are still incredibly fudgy and moist, not cakey. I'm not sure if the thin meringue-like crust that developed on the top of my brownies was intended, but I loved its crunch.

Artpark Brownies

Ingredients:
2/3 cup butter
5 ounces unsweetened, best-quality French chocolate
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups sugar
1 cup sifted flour

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

2. Butter and flour a 9-inch square baking pan.

3. Melt butter and chocolate in double boiler, over boiling water. When melted, add vanilla and set aside.

4. Beat eggs and salt in mixer. Add sugar and beat at high speed for about 10 minutes, or until the mixture is quite white.

5. Add chocolate and butter mixture and beat at low speed, just until mixed. Add flour and combine quickly, until there are no white streaks.

6. Pour batter into baking pan and put in oven. Immediate turn oven down to 350 degrees F. and bake for 40 minutes. (the normal toothpick test will not work on these brownies, but if you want to try pricking them with a toothpick, it should come out not quite clean.) Do not overbake; these brownies should be fudgy.

7. Makes 12 brownies.

Tender at the Bone, Ruth Reichl, Broadway Books, 1999

--Tracy Schneider