Ingredients

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, plus butter for greasing the baking pan (optional)
3 ounce unsweetened chocolate
2 1/2 ounce 1⁄2 cups granulated sugar

1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
3 tablespoon large eggs
1 1/2 tablespoon 1⁄2 cups all-purpose flour

Preparation

Baking Directions:

It had been dawning on me that the surest way to achieve brownie nirvana, the kind of fudgy chocolatiness that wimpy people say is too chocolate-y (and then go on to polish off another brownie or two), is best achieved by combining cocoa powder and melted chocolate.

During this period of intense brownie contemplation I had lunch with Melissa Clark, food writer and mom to young Dahlia, and mentioned my brownie quest.

She thought she had a recipe somewhere with dueling chocolates, and she e-mailed it to me that afternoon.

I tinkered with it a bit, determined to decode a perfect brownie that could be mixed right in the saucepan.

This is the one-pot result.

Fifteen minutes of hands-on time, max, and well worth every minute.

I am also ridiculously pleased to say that this recipe shaves off two more common brownie-making steps.

Often a recipe will tell you to chop the chocolate before melting it.

Here you just make sure to melt it with the butter over low heat, and the chocolate will dissolve gently into the butter, without scorching.

Also, you can skip the whole double boiler thing if you keep the heat low enough, don’t stray too far, and stir frequently.

This saves you washing a chopping board, a knife (or a food processor bowl and blade), and the second double boiler pan.

You will want to celebrate this with a brownie.

Here's what to do:1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Generously butter a 13-by-9–inch baking pan or spray it with nonstick cooking spray.

Place the butter and chocolate in a medium-size saucepan over low heat and let melt together, stirring until smooth.

Remove the saucepan from the heat and stir in the cocoa powder, sugar and salt, then blend in the vanilla.

Beat in the eggs one at a time, stirring to mix quickly so they don’t have a chance to cook at all before they are blended in.

Blend in the flour.

Scrape the thick batter into the prepared baking pan and smooth the top with a spatula.

Bake until the edges just begin to pull away from the sides of the pan and a wooden skewer or toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes.

Let the brownies cool in the pan on a wire rack.

When completely cool, cut them into 12 or 24 squares.