I spent some time the other night looking through things you all have pinned from my blog recently (and some not so recently, too). Wow. Thank you, guys!!!! It was so flattering and humbling. It led to me camping out on the couch and re-reading old posts from the past. Which, surprisingly, was a lot of fun and a lot less like reading an embarrassing diary from jr. high than I thought. Here are a handful of the ones I saw: 

I realize some of you guys have been faithfully reading for years and have seen these already. You are awesome. Thanks for sticking with me through holiday breaks, busy camp seasons, my speechlessness after my first baby, and funny food stuff while I healed my gut. I hope there's a post that will take you back to where you were when you first read it and bring back memories for you guys, too. Or maybe you're a new reader and have some exploring to do!!

But back to the real topic of this post: brownies. All summer long I craved a fudgy brownie. I blame the baby. Baby wants brownies? The baby gets them! And I get a chance at making brownies outside of a box. (This is unbelievably my first attempt.) When I went hunting for a recipe, I was excited to find that one of Smitten Kitchen's most popular brownie recipes only called for cocoa. I am hopeless when it comes to keeping bars of chocolate on hand for baking, so I figured this was the route I should try... then, I read this line in Deb's post: "I believe these brownies will be especially beloved by people who enjoy box mix brownies. They share a moist, dense crumb..." She had me at box mix. And, after chilling them, they did not disappoint. (I think the chilling step is one of the most crucial for truly dense brownies!) 

1 cup raw sugar or coconut sugar

3/4 cup + 2 T. unsweetened cocoa powder

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 large eggs, cold

1/2 cup rice flour (I used sprouted brown rice flour)

These brownies have been made gluten-free by using rice flour instead of all-purpose. Basically I just really wanted brownies and didn't have any "regular" flour in my cupboard. So, necessity is the mother of invention! I also swapped out white sugar for it's caramel-y tasting unrefined counterpart: coconut sugar. 

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line an 8x8 inch baking pan with parchment paper. Combine the butter, sugar, cocoa, and salt in a medium heatproof bowl and set the bowl in a wide skillet or pot of simmering water. Stir from time to time until butter is melted and the mixture is smooth and fairly hot. Remove the bowl and set aside until mixture is only warm, not hot. It will look pretty gritty at this point.   

Stir in the vanilla and add the eggs one at a time, stirring well after each one. When the batter looks thick, shiny, and well blended, add the flour and stir until you can't see it any longer. Then beat vigorously for 40 strokes with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula. Spread evenly in the lined pan. 

Bake until toothpick plunged in the middle comes out slightly moist with batter. 20 to 25 minutes, although Deb says it took at least 10 minutes more for hers to set. Let cool completely on a wire rack and then chill in the fridge or freezer for a bit. Resist the temptation to cut and sample the brownies while they are still warm-- they are not worth it yet!! You've been warned. 

Once the brownies are well chilled, lift parchment paper and cut into 16 small squares. 

Disclaimer** I never post recipes on my blog that I don't like. I only post the ones that have "turned out" for me. But I should confess, at first I thought these brownies were a fail. The fault is mine; I was making a half-batch and I did my math wrong. I ended up adding an extra 2 Tablespoons of cocoa, which made the brownies extra dark tasting. I enjoy dark chocolate, so they didn't put me off- especially after they got nice and cold. (I made the mistake of trying them while they were hot.) But I'm going to go ahead and post them today, certain that if I hadn't made my math mistake, they would be perfect. I know you can forgive me. :)