When Mr. Man and I first moved to San Francisco, we moved up here so that he could take a job at this little start up that made a software program he was pretty excited about. There was maybe – oh, twenty people, or so at his office. I would drop in from time to time – everyone pretty much knew everyone else. Because I’ve always liked to cook, I would sometimes send in baked goods and treats for Mr. Man to share with his coworkers.

Probably the most famous of these treats would be these brownies. Mr. Man would bring them in, bright and early, send out an email announcing their presence in the kitchen area, and by noon they would be gone. Some of the response emails are hillarious, and Mr. Man would forward them to me. Of course, after the first couple of times I sent them in – I had a few people begging for the recipe, and a few other advising that I never, ever share it, the knoweledge just being too dangerous.

Eventually the company became large enough that one pan of brownies was not enough, and if I wanted to send in brownies it would have to be two pans, and then shortly there after, even two pans would not have been enough. Coincidentally, that was also the time that I took a job working for an expanding company, and brownie production took a definite downturn in direct proportion to my available time (none). However, after a year at the company I was working for, things at work had become much less enjoyable and Mr. Man and I discussed it and decided that the time had come for me to leave and focus on house hunting (and now home-making) – unfortunately, now Mr. Man’s company is too large for me to easily send brownies in to – I would feel bad that so many of my old and dear friends would not have a chance to get some before they were devoured, and I’ve no desire to make the 4 or more batches of brownies that would be neccessary to give them a fighting chance at it. lol

So the time has come to release the secret out in to the wild. I found this recipe here a long time ago. The perfect brownie recipe.

Ingredients:

• 8 oz high quality unsweetened chocolate
• 1 cup + 1 tbs butter
• 5 eggs
• 3 cups Sugar
• 1 tbs Vanilla
• 1 tsp Coffee Extract (optional)
• 1 and 1/2 cups flour
• 1 tsp Kosher Salt
• 2 and 1/2 cups Chopped Pecans

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 375º
• Line a 9″x13″ pan with Parchment Paper
• In a small skillet, melt the 1tbs of butter over medium heat
• Add the pecans and toss to coat
• Stir the pecans occasionally, and cook until fragrant (2-4 minutes)
• In a small saucepan, gently melt the remaining butter and chocolate together, stirring to combine
• Set the chocolate aside to cool
• In a stand mixer bowl (if you have it – or a large mixing bowl) beat the eggs, sugar and vanilla on high for several minutes, or until doubled in volume.
• Blend in the cooled chocolate mixture, flour, and salt until just mixed, scraping sides of bowl as neccessary
• Gently fold in the toasted pecans
• Pour batter in to the parchment lined pan and bake for 35-40 minutes
• Cool completely before cutting