Dark Chocolate Nutella Brownies

This is a recipe I found via Pinterest. All I wanted to do was find an easy recipe that I could take to a friend's house for a little get together and this jumped at me. I have no regrets. These are by far the best brownies I have ever eaten, let alone made, in my entire life. Now all I want to do is incorporate more and more (dark) chocolate into the recipe.

To my dismay, I couldn't use dark cocoa powder. I have never had the privilege to use such an ingredient, but luckily regular cocoa powder does the job. To make up for the lack of "dark", I just used dark chocolate chips (and lots of them) instead of the mini chocolate chips. This is a rule of thumb when I'm baking. "Oh, this recipe calls for chocolate chips!" *poors in at least 150% of what should be in the recipe*  I have a chocolate problem, which explains the "10+ ounces..." in the ingredients section. You should indulge in more dark chocolate anyway, it's good for you!


Dark Chocolate Nutella Brownies

Ingredients:

1 cup (2 sticks) butter
2 1/4 cups sugar
1 regular sized jar (13oz) Nutella
4 large eggs
1 cup cocoa powder
1/4 cup dark cocoa powder (normal cocoa powder works just fine)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon espresso powder (I used instant coffee, Nescafe)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
10+ ounces dark chocolate chips...the darker, the better


Directions

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Coat a 9×13 baking dish with butter and sprinkle with flour, knocking the dish against the counter to get rid of the excess.
In small saucepan over low heat, melt butter completely. Stir in sugar and continue cooking for 1-2 minutes, stirring constantly. Do not allow to boil.
Remove from the heat and stir in the Nutella until smooth.
Pour butter mixture into a large bowl. Beat in cocoa powders, eggs, salt, baking powder, espresso powder, and vanilla extract. Mix until well combined.
Stir in the flour and chocolate chips until just combined.
Spread into prepared pan (batter will be very thick and sticky) and bake for about 35 minutes, until a tester comes out mostly clean. The edges should be set and the center should still look slightly moist, but not uncooked.

Overbaking these brownies, from my experience, will only result in super crunchy edges. The middle will still be moist.

Note - these brownies will stay moist for days after you make them. Heating them in the microwave for about 7-10seconds more than does the trick to get them to the perfect eating temperature. Enjoy!


Sources
Recipe slightly altered from findingsilverlinings.net