Ode to a Brownie....and My Secret Boyfriends

Do you love chocolate? If you ask me, the answer is emphatically "YES!!!" Well, if you love chocolate, then you have to try these brownies......they are from my secret boyfriends at Baked NYC (more on them later).

Now, I admit I am kind of a brownie snob....but I will gladly help to devour a pan of box mix brownies! However, I absolutely adore homemade brownies that use lots of good quality chocolate! For this recipe I used some Valrhona dark chocolate bars as well as dark cocoa powder.....so much chocolate goodness!!

The number one rule with these brownies is not to overbake!! You want to take these out of the oven when a toothpick inserted into the center of the pan has a few moist crumbs attached to it.

To find the recipe for the Baked brownie, check out their book Baked: New Frontiers in Baking.....or you can also just go to Williams-Sonoma and pick up their brownie mix!

Ok......so now that I've introduced you to Baked NYC (in case you'd never heard of them before).....let me now introduce you to my secret boyfriends, Renato Poliafito and Matt Lewis, the owners of Baked. They are my secret boyfriends, in that they know nothing about my obsession with them. However, they are not so secret in my house, because the hubby knows all about them!! Pardon the picture......I am a tired Mommy today, but I had to pose with the guys :)

I have probably done at 15 or so recipes from their two cookbooks that are out: Baked: New Frontiers in Baking and Baked Explorations. Every single recipe has gotten an amazing response from family, friends, and me!! These guys really know what they're doing, and reading through the recipes, it feels like they're standing there next to you talking you through it.

We are heading to Charleston in June after going to a family wedding, and imagine my surprise when I discovered that the only place there is a Baked bakery, aside from Brooklyn, is in Charleston!! And quickly looking on Google Maps......it's only 2 blocks from our hotel! Who-hoo! I've already informed my family that they will be heading there multiple times a day each day that we are in Charleston! I am bound and determined to try as many things as I possibly can....diet be damned!

And that's that......I can be fickle in my baking/cooking obsessions.....but for the last few months, these are the guys who have stole my baking heart!