Triply Chocolate Brownies

I was dicing samples of peaches yesterday at work when the catering manager placed this still-shrink-wrapped Le Creuset enamaled cast iron baking pan on the table and asked me if I wanted it.

"It's just been collecting dust upstairs," she said. Naturally, it weighed a ton and half when I was biking up Polk Street.

Of course I had to take it for a spin around the kitchen once I got it home. At first, I was making regular brownies. Then I decided to replace some of the flour with cocoa powder, and they were doubly-chocolate brownies. And then I found myself sprinkling whole chocolate chips on top of the batter, and I was up to my knees in triply chocolate brownies. When I pulled them from the oven, Chocolate No. 3 had become shiny pools glinting on the chocolate landscape. Quick as a wink I studded the melted pools of chocolate with fat crystals of sea salt and packed the fragile young brownies into bikeable containers. With all that chocolate, they weighed a ton and a half as I swooped down Polk Street. They were still molten by the time I arrived.

Triply-Chocolate Brownies

Set out 4 eggs to warm up.

In a double boiler, or very carefully over direct heat, melt together:

1/4 lb. butter
1/4 lb. dark chocolate, chopped

Place the chocolate-butter mixture in the freezer to cool, stirring occasionally. Butter a 9 x 13 baking dish.

When the eggs are warmer and sweaty, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Beat the eggs with 1/2 tsp. salt till foamy and light-colored. Whisk in:

1.5 c. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla

Then dump in the chocolate, exchange the whisk for a spatula, and briefly mix it together. Add:

3/4 c. flour
1/4 c. cocoa powder

Combine everything swiftly and pour into the buttered baking dish. Sprinkle with 1/4 c. dark chocolate chips. Bake till not super-gooey, 25 minutes or so. Place large crystals of sea salt in the melted chocolate chips before they cool. These brownies will totally keep you up at night.