Yesterday was my sister’s birthday, and with her being a huge fan of Katherine Hepburn, I thought it would be appropriate to try a recipe I found that is originally credited to the late star. The recipe was originally published in the Ladies Home Journal in 1975, but has apparently made the rounds on the Internet. After seeing its widespread fame, I decided that it must be worth trying. I love brownies… especially the cleanup… one sauce pan, one spoon.

A quick warning to anyone who likes fudgey(is that a word?) brownies: These are awesome, and may keep you from ever buying boxed brownie mix ever again! I am really NOT a fan of cakey brownies, and because of that, boxed brownies have always tasted decent to me because they at least had the right texture. I could get past the pre-made taste since the texture was there, but now I can have the best of both worlds: taste and texture.

Being more of a cook than a true baker, I am almost never content to actually follow a recipe, so I decided to experiment a little by making two slightly different batches. The recipe calls for 2 baker’s chocolate squares, and I did use them in the first batch. Seeing as we have an overabundance of cocoa powder, I decided to try another round substituting that for the chocolate squares.

1 square = 3 Tbsp cocoa powder (and you should add a little extra butter: roughly 1 Tbsp).

The first batch was made to my preference: softer, more fudgey (there I go again… I’m pretty sure it’s a word), and most importantly sans the walnuts! To appease the nut lovers, I included the walnuts in the second batch (but only half the recommended amount. ha!). I read several comments that suggested 40 minutes of baking was too long, so I pulled the first batch out at 35 min. The toothpick test did come out clean, but the brownies were fairly difficult to cut, because they were sticking to the knife a lot. The second batch did cook for the full 40 min, and did still stick to the knife a bit, but seemed to be a little easier to manage.

Kathering Hepburn’s Brownies

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INGREDIENTS

• 1 stick (8 tablespoons) butter
• 2 squares unsweetened chocolate
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

METHOD
1. Melt together 1 stick butter and 2 squares unsweetened chocolate and take the saucepan off the heat.

2. Stir in 1 cup sugar, add 2 eggs and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, and beat the mixture well.

3. Stir in 1/4 cup all-purpose flour and 1/4 teaspoon salt. (Optional: Add 1 cup chopped walnuts is added here as well.)

4. Bake the brownies in a buttered and floured 8-inch-square pan at 325°F for about 40 minutes.
Seth’s Tip: Line the baking dish with wax paper to make them easier to remove after baking. I also used cooking spray on both my knife and spatula to cut down on the sticking.

I first found this at Epicurious.com.