Ultimate Chocolate Brownies

My sister had this small cookbook from Hershey's that had a good and simple Brownie recipe that made use of cocoa instead of chocolate squares. This isn't the same recipe, but I'm glad I found this by way of Apartment Therapy.

• 3/4 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 2/3 cup butter or margarine, melted and divided
• 1/2 cup boiling water
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1-1/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup HERSHEY'S SPECIAL DARK Chocolate Chips or HERSHEY'S Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
• ONE-BOWL BUTTERCREAM FROSTING(recipe follows)

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease 13x9x2-inch baking pan or two 8-inch square baking pans.

2. Stir together cocoa and baking soda in large bowl; stir in 1/3 cup butter. Add boiling water; stir until mixture thickens. Stir in sugar, eggs and remaining 1/3 cup butter; stir until smooth. Add flour, vanilla and salt; blend completely. Stir in chocolate chips. Pour into prepared pan.

3. Bake 35 to 40 minutes for rectangular pan, 30 to 35 minutes for square pans or until brownies begin to pull away from sides of pan. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Frost with ONE-BOWL BUTTERCREAM FROSTING. Cut into squares. About 36 brownies.

ONE-BOWL BUTTERCREAM FROSTING
6 tablespoons butter or margarine, softened
2-2/3 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Beat butter in medium bowl. Add powdered sugar and cocoa alternately with milk, beating to spreading consistency (additional milk may be needed). Stir in vanilla. About 2 cups frosting.

Here's another gem from Apartment Therapy:

How to Get a Crunchy Top on Brownies

We love the glossy wafer-thin top crust that sometimes appears on brownies almost as much as we love the fudgy layer underneath. We always thought this was phenomenon was random or particular to specific recipes, but then we discovered that there's a way we can get it all the time! Here's how:

We consulted one of our favorite cookbooks, BakeWise, and found that this crispy top crust is actually a layer of meringue. That's right - whipped egg whites and sugar! It happens in recipes where the the butter and sugar are creamed together and then the eggs are added. The more the mixture is beaten once the eggs are added, the more prominent this crust.
If you're like us and you love the crispy top, just beat the batter as much as possible after adding the eggs and before adding any other ingredients. We tried this by hand using a whisk in with our recent batch of Hershey's Ultimate Chocolate Brownies and got a decent, though fairly thick crust. We expect that we'd get an even more impressive crust if we used a standing or hand mixer instead.
This recipe from Martha Stewart has you beat the eggs and sugar for a full 10 minutes!
• Chocolate Brownies from Martha Stewart
Conversely, if you're not a fan of crusts, just mix the batter as little as possible once you add the eggs. You might even whisk the eggs before adding them to the batter so they'll blend in more quickly and smoothly.
This method also works for cookies and cakes. Now that we know the secret, we're excited to experiment with all our baking!
What do you think: crispy crust, yay or nay?
(Image: Martha Stewart)