Fudgy Sourdough Brownies

Just in time for Memorial Day gatherings

Many of you have taken up sourdough bread baking over the past few years and know that keeping your starter in great shape means removing some part of it (the 'discard') and feeding the starter with flour and water. We'd like to give it a new name: 'reserve'. Something to be used and cherished. We're fond of turning it into sourdough tortillas or pancakes. The folks at King Arthur Flour have found another excellent use. Add the 'reserve'  as a 'secret ingredient' to make the fudgiest brownies you'll ever eat.

If you don't have a sourdough starter, you might have friends who do. We're sure they would love to contribute to this delicious dessert, but you might have to share the brownies!

Everything is prepared in a single pot, which is then poured into a baking pan.

Ingredients

• 8 tablespoons (113g) unsalted butter

• 1 cup (198g) granulated sugar

• 1/4 cup (54g) light brown sugar, packed

• 3/4 cup (63g) unsweetened cocoa, Dutch process or natural

• 1 1/2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract

• 1 teaspoon table salt

• 2 large eggs

• 1/2 cup (113g) sourdough starter 'discard' (no more than 2 weeks old)

• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

• 1/2 cup (85g) semisweet chocolate chips for the dough

• 3 TB (35g) semisweet chocolate chips to sprinkle on top

Grease an 8" square pan (see note at the bottom if you don't have one), then line it with parchment. Lightly grease the parchment. Preheat your oven to 350 deg. F, placing a rack in the center. If using a convection oven with fan running, heat to 325 deg. F.

Place the cocoa, vanilla and salt in a small bowl.

8 tablespoons of butter is often one stick. Cut it into approximately 8 pieces to facilitate melting. Put the butter and sugars in a medium-large pot over medium heat, stirring from time to time until the butter starts bubbling around the edges of the pot and the sugar has started to dissolve, 2 to 5 minutes.

Whisk in the sourdough starter and baking powder until no streaks of starter remain.  Then vigorously stir in the 1/2 cup of chocolate chips, melting them into the warm batter. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and sprinkle with the remaining 3 tablespoons chocolate chips.

NOTE: Sourdough starter is rather sticky and you want it to be at hand to efficiently put it into the batter. A really useful measuring cup (variously sold as WonderCup, Adjustable Measuring Cup or Adjust-a-Cup) lets you put things like batter, honey or just about anything else into a plastic measuring tube. You can even have all at once. When ready, turn the cup over and push the tube to force any ingredients out. A very useful kitchen gadget!

Bake approximately 22 to 28 minutes, until the top is shiny but not wet-looking, the edges are starting to pull away from the sides of the pan, and an inserted toothpick comes out with no wet batter. 

Let the brownies cool completely in the pan, at least an hour. For more foolproof cutting we prefer to cover them and put them in the fridge up to over night.

If they aren't eaten immediately, wrap tightly and keep in the fridge for a week, or freeze them.

Take your brownies up a notch...

• Add a teaspoon or two of espresso powder to the batter.

• Add 1/3 cup chopped walnuts (or any other favorite chopped nut) to the batter.

• Instead of all semisweet chocolate chips, a mixture of chips that could include white chocolate, milk chocolate, or even a few butterscotch.

• Use semisweet chocolate bars instead of the chips for the dough

NOTE: No 8" pan?

Necessity is the mother of invention...

We were so excited to make these brownies, but we didn't have an 8" square pan. We did, however have a 7" x 11" pan. Remembering that an 8" square pan has 64 square inches of area, we MacGyvered our pan to 7" x 9" using a jar and parchment paper, making a perfectly acceptable 63 square inches of brownies.

HOWIE'S WINE SUGGESTION: Bedrock Old Vine Zinfandel from Sonoma with notes of dark berries and a bit of spice excellently pairs with rich chocolate. $19.99 on Howie's shelf

Or, A tall glass of milk!