The Quest for the Ultimate Brownie

Back "in the day" before I moved to Mexico, my roommates and I used to go to this local coffee shop. The atmosphere was fun (that's usually the biggest thing about a coffee shop, right? How's the atmosphere?) the coffee was great, and the desserts...Wow. For $2 you could get an enormous, thick, fudgy, heavenly brownie. They were the best brownies I had ever had. And I moved away from them. In fact, I moved away from Brownies all together.
When I moved a village in Oaxaca, Mexico, I gave up a lot of things. One of them was chocolate. Chocolate is expensive in Mexico. Most of what is produced in Mexico is shipped out, and then imported back in, causing the prices to double or more. That being said, brownies are not common in Mexico. Food is one of the most distinctly cultural things in existence. Especially desserts. The desserts in Mexico are amazing, but so different. I love to try new foods. I am fascinated by other cultures, but when you want a brownie, arroz con leche just doesn't cut it. When I did find brownies, I was not willing to pay the price of an imported brownie, much less when it's probably Betty Crocker. No offense, but I've never been one to cook from a box when it takes the same amount of time to cook from scratch.Thus began my quest.
Early in my marriage I began to try recipe after recipe. I was a new wife in a culture that expected a three course meal for dinner every day, including a dessert. I can make flan, and arroz con leche, and gelatin's, and mango pudding. Sometimes you just want a good brownie. The whole recipes on the internet thing was really just picking up. For someone living as an ex-patriot in another country, the internet is amazing. It can provide a little slice of home when you most need it. For me, it provided endless brownie recipes.
For years, I tried recipe after recipe. I could never find anything to equal the Super Brownie. I found good brownies, healthy brownies. We tried coco brownies, we tried sour cream brownies, zucchini brownies. I even tried brownie recipes for my particular altitude in the state of Queretaro. The Accountant can attest that there were months where I tried a different brownie recipe every week. Yet I never found the elusive Super Brownie. I gave up for a time when we moved back to the US.
Enter Pinterest. A plethora of brownie recipes ever taunting me. I stood, like Indiana Jones, attempting to choose the holy grail of brownies. Thankfully, the failure recipes didn't cause the angel of death to come and whisk my soul away, they only caused The Accountant to groan and wonder if his brownie pergatory would ever end. And then I found it. On a cold, snowy day last winter, I clicked on a pin. It took me here to Sweet Anna's blog, where at last, after many years I found what I sought.
These are the best brownies I have ever made. They taste just like our local coffee shop's huge, fudgy super brownie. This is a find as dangerous as the Holy Grail. I make these, and freeze most of the batter so that I can have them whenever I want. I've never put icing on them yet, but I just might put them in individual muffin cups, ice them, and put season sprinkles on them one of these days...
If you have been seeking the ultimate, fudgy brownie, seek no further my friend. Your quest can end here.