My current favorite brownie recipe

Last Thursday afternoon Matt texted me to say they were having a Superbowl carry-in at work the next day.  I was headed off to my afternoon of work soon and we were already over our grocery budget for the month.  I knew we had some frozen bags of chocolate chips and asked him if he could just take brownies.  I whipped these up after work and sent him off at 6:30 the next morning with instructions to "tell everyone they taste disgusting because I really want to eat some brownies".  Then I rolled over and went back to sleep.   Lucky for me their carry-in was mostly desserts and dips which meant brownies came home for me! 

Everyone should have a go-to brownie recipe.  They are a dessert that can do everything, work for everything, and be modified 100 different ways.  They don't need to (and shouldn't) come from a box because they are incredibly easy to make from scratch.  And if you've been reading this awhile you know we prefer things from scratch around here.  

This is my current favorite brownie recipe and one that is made mostly with pantry staples (depending on what you consider staples).  And they are dark chocolate which also makes them about 1000x's better.  (I'm firmly on the "if it's not dark chocolate is isn't worth eating" side of the dark vs. milk debate.)

Dark Chocolate Brownies
yield: makes 1 8x8 pan of brownies.  How many brownies that makes is up to you.

Ingredients
1 2/3 cups dark chocolate chips (approx. 1-12 oz bag)
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter
2 TB water
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt

1) Preheat oven to 325° and grease an 8x8 pan.
2) Put 1 1/3 cups chocolate chips (set aside the remaining 1/3 cup), sugar, butter (cut into smaller pieces if you like), and water into a small saucepan over low heat.  Stir pretty much constantly until chocolate and butter are melted. 
3) Pour chocolate/butter mixture into a bowl and add the eggs one at a time, combined well after each.  Add the vanilla extract, flour, and salt.  Stir well.  Add the remaining chocolate chips.  Stir.
4) Pour into the prepared 8x8 pan and bake for about 40 minutes.  My oven is really slow and took another 5 minutes. A knife inserted in the middle should come out almost clean when they are done.
5) Let cool and try not to eat the whole pan in a weekend.  Matt brought home 3/4 the pan and they were gone by lunch on Sunday. 

Source: AllRecipes