Jill's Award Winning Brownies

(Best of Class at California State Fair)

1/3 cup Dagoba cocoa powder

½ cup boiling water
2 tablespoons coffee liqueur

2 ounces Dagoba unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped

4 tablespoons (½ stick, 2 ounces) unsalted butter, melted 
½ cup plus 2 tablespoons canola oil

2 large eggs

2 large egg yolks

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

2½ cups (17½ ounces) granulated sugar

1¾ cups (8¾ ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour

¾ teaspoon sea salt

6 ounces semi-sweet Dagoba chocolate, cut into ½-inch pieces

Parchment paper
1 teaspoon melted butter for pan
9 x 13 metal pan
Sifted powdered sugar for garnish

1. Position oven rack to lower third of oven and heat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9x13-inch baking pan with parchment paper, leaving about a one-inch overhang on all sides. Brush bottom of parchment lined pan with melted butter.  Combine eggs and yolks in a small bowl and lightly beat with a fork.

2. Whisk cocoa, coffee liqueur and boiling water together in large bowl until smooth. Add unsweetened chocolate and whisk until chocolate is melted. Whisk in melted butter and oil. (Mixture may look curdled.) Add beaten eggs and vanilla and continue to whisk until smooth and homogeneous. Whisk in sugar until fully incorporated. Add flour and salt and mix with rubber spatula until combined. Fold in chocolate pieces.

3. Scrape batter into prepared pan.  Tap pan on counter several times to evenly distribute batter.   Bake until toothpick inserted halfway between edge and center comes out with just a few moist crumbs attached and brownies just feel firm to the touch, 30 to 35 minutes. Transfer pan to wire rack and cool 1½ hours. 

4. Using parchment paper overhang, lift brownies from pan. Return brownies to wire rack and let cool completely, about 1 hour. Dust with powdered sugar and cut into 2-inch squares.  Makes approximately 24 brownies. 

Wine pairing with dark chocolate brownies

One rule to cherish is that the wine you serve should be as sweet if not sweeter than the dessert. With brownies, the rich qualities of red wines with more sweetness will fit the bill best.  This is not to say that some of the sweeter white wines will not work, but the harmony of the fuller bodied reds will typically win out. Keep in mind that the qualities of good chocolate in brownies are not far removed from wines as they sport their own complexities; a happy marriage of fruitiness, acidity, bitterness, and last but not least, sweetness.  So what happens if you try a drier, but still full bodied red wine like a cabernet sauvignon?  The result will not be terrible, but you will have done no favors to the integrity of the wine; especially if it is an expensive, more complex wine. The sweeter dark chocolate brownies will dominate the palate, which is not a bad thing in and of itself. But for the wine, the same cannot be said.  The red wine alone may possess a rich, mouth filling character with body and complex notes, but much of this will be neutered as the sweeter brownies will overtake, causing the red wine so seem even drier and its complexities now missing in action

Port - the Old Reliable

Several recommendations come to mind, though for so decadent a chocolaty orgasm as Jill's brownies, it is hard to beat a good port. Many ports are available, ranging to quality affordable offerings such as the Portuguese Dow Ruby Port or Cockburn's offering in the $10 to $15 to $100-plus for aged classics.  Spectacularly aged ports that fetch a much higher price are so interesting in their own right that pairing them with brownies, while still delicious, may cause you to lose focus on the better characteristics of the port.  It is similar to using a top shelf, aged blue agave tequila in a margarita. What unique qualities the tequila possesses alone in a sipping glass get lost in its role as an adjunct in a margarita.  If you like Californian port style wines, consider several good offerings between $10 and $20 dollars.  Sobon's Zinfandel Port from the Amador area is a good choice as is Ficklin Port from the central valley near Madera.

Try a Madeira

Madeira  offers a good alternative to port as a wine to pair with chocolate brownies.  Broadbent Malmsey 10 years old is a good suggestion that typically can be found for just under $20 a bottle.

Champagne or Sparkling Wine - Careful!

How often do you hear of Valentine's Day accompaniments of champagne or sparkling wines with rich, chocolaty desserts?  Pretty often. Sad indeed as this combination is even more eviscerating to the goodness of the champagne or sparkling wine than the aforementioned pairing with a dry red. The sweetness of the chocolaty dessert entirely dominates.  The champagne or sparkling wine now tastes more like Fresca, most of its goodness lost. Now to be fair, Fresca has a place in the grand scheme of things, but this is not it. So enjoy the bubbly with some oysters and strawberries. When the brownies come out later, put the bubbly away (assuming there is any left). A sweeter offering like an Asti Spumante may get a little closer to pairing bliss, but this sort of heavy lifting is best left to the dessret wines.