I’m always working on my brownie-game. Whether I am actually making brownies at home, or eating them outside my kitchen (preferably here, where, I would posit, NYC’s best brownie is currently being made), I’ve constantly got brownies on the mind.
And with such a brownie preoccupation, it was only a matter of time before I tackled Alice Medrich’s infamous cocoa brownies. The brownies are special because they don’t call for melted chocolate and, instead, cocoa powder supplies all of their chocolate flavor. Much is written about why this makes these brownies so fudge-y, deeply chocolate-y, and delicious, and look here if you’d like to read all about it. 
In playing with Medrich’s original recipe, I twisted and tweaked to make the assembly of the brownies easier, and more like the assembly of the infamous baked brownie (no more stirring of cocoa powder and butter in a double boiler over the stovetop) and because I always see the need for brown sugar and its slightly molasses-y flavor in my baking, I substituted light brown sugar, for most of the granulated. 
Oh, and salt. I added extra salt to the batter and in the form of a sprinkle on top, as salt plus sweet equals perfect (at least in my book). Oh, and Dutch process cocoa powder, as opposed to natural cocoa powder. Some claim either works in a cocoa brownie, but I gotta put my foot down on this one – Dutch process is a must both for the deeply dark color it imparts, and the flavor. Alice Medrich’s original cocoa brownies are amazing, of course, as is. This is just my humble, uber tasty, take on them, as tweaking amazing treats is kind of my thing . . .
[yumprint-recipe id=’110′]Bars are the best and I’ve got plenty more where this recipe came from!
