Award Winning Brownies

Last fall I won a brownie bake-off at a local chocolate festival. So I figured this 'signature' recipe of mine should be one of the first I include in this blog. Basically these are extra chocolatey due to the use of Hershey's Special Dark cocoa and I used the recipe for the filling of my grandmother's nut tassies and spread it over the top of the brownie batter. These really are good - I knew I had a winner when I brought the test batch into work and not only were they gone - my office mates dug into the box I was planning to take to the post office for a friend. These were also featured in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

I will add a picture next time I make a batch.

1st Place Brownies

Brownies
2 sticks butter
2 c sugar
2 tsp vanilla
4 eggs
¾ c Cocoa
(Hershey’s Special Dark)
1 c flour
½ tsp b. powder
¼ tsp salt
Nut topping
3 eggs beaten
3 Tb melted butter
3 tsp vanilla
2 ¼ c brown sugar
¾ tsp salt
3 c finely chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350
Grease 13 x 9 x 2 inch baking pan


Melt butter in microwave, cool to room temp.
Stir in sugar and vanilla.
Beat in eggs one at a time.
Beat in cocoa.
Beat in flour, baking powder and ¼ tsp salt
Pour into prepared pan

Combine all ingredients for nut topping except for walnuts and mix thoroughly. Fold in walnuts.
Drizzle nut topping over brownie batter, being careful to completely cover edges. Some of the topping will leak over to create a caramelized bottom on the brownie.

Bake at 350 for 40-45 minutes until toothpick comes out with fudgey crumbs.
For neatly cut brownies, score the brownies shortly after removed from the oven.

Cool completely, then finish cutting.
Yields 24-30