Jolly Holiday Brownies

With the holidays just around the corner, one of our favorite recipes that can be easily dressed up or down for the season, brownies! This recipe uses some of our favorite local ingredients. Great by themselves and even better with stir-in additions, today we are using both seasonal chocolate bars from Seattle Chocolate and hot cocoa mix from our friends at Moonstruck Chocolate Co. to make them extra special. 

Ingredients:

• 2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, melted and cooled; 1 stick softened butter, to grease pan 
• 3 large eggs
• ½ cup Moonstruck cocoa mix 
• 12 oz. your favorite Seattle Chocolate chocolate bars, cut into evenly sized pieces 
• 1 cup of sugar 
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 
• 1 cup all-purpose flour; Additional to flour pan with 
• 1 teaspoon fine salt 
• ½ teaspoon baking powder 

Instructions:

1.  Preheat your oven to 350°F. 
2. Grease and flour a 9-by-13-inch pan using 1 stick of softened butter:
   1. Coat the entire inside of your pan with butter.
   2. Line the pan with parchment paper, leaving a small overhang of paper so that it is easier to remove the brownies after baking.
   3. Then grease the parchment with more butter and sprinkle the greased pan with flour.
   4. Shake and rotate the pan gently until all the greased surfaces are completely dusted with flour. 
3.  In a mixing bowl, combine 1 cup of the melted and cooled unsalted butter, 1 cup of sugar, 3 eggs, and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract.
4. Separately combine 1 cup of all-purpose flour, ½ cup of the hot cocoa mix, 1 teaspoon of salt, and ½ teaspoon of baking powder.
5. To make sure there are no lumps in the batter, sift through a fine-mesh strainer as you combine the wet and dry ingredients. Gently stir until the mixture is just combined.
6. Add in 6 oz. of the chocolate pieces, reserving the other half. Fold in gently to the mixture and then pour and spread the mixture evenly in the baking pan.
7. Sprinkle the remaining 6 oz. of the chocolate pieces on top of the batter or arrange them into a festive decoration. 
8.  Bake until the brownies begin to pull away from the edges of the pan and are set in the center, about 30 to 35 minutes.
9. Remove from oven and let cool 10 to 15 minutes
10. Use the parchment edges to lift the brownies out of the pan.
11. Cut into 24 even squares.