Best Brownies Ever

My mother is a wonderful cook, but will readily admit that she is not a baker. I had to teach myself the art of pie crust, layer cakes and the humble brownie. Her brownies came from a box, then were baked in the wrong type of pan for too long!

I'm still not sure if her fastidiously healthy approach to cooking and eating kept her from baking much, or if she always baked rubbery brownies in a conscious or maybe unconscious attempt to keep the rest of us from eating too many desserts. What do you think, Mama?

Anyway, the MM loves brownies and after several days without a single bite of chocolate (sad, I know), I decided that we should have some brownies. My go-to for baked items is Smitten Kitchen, about which I've blogged many, many times. It did not disappoint. These homemade brownies are so easy and quick, there's no need to ever go back to a boxed mix. And did I mention that they're the best brownies ever?

The secret is unsweetened chocolate as a base and using coarse sea salt at the end for that little bit of salty with the decadent sweetness of the chocolate.  Yum. You can find the recipe for "My Favorite Brownies" here.