Brownies and bars

It’s tough to beat a classic brownie for sheer chocolate pleasure. At least as long as it is a fudgy brownie rather than a cakey one (and who are those mysterious people who prefer cakey brownies?) and is sufficiently bold with chocolate flavor. There are about eleventy-billion brownie recipes out there, many of them good-to-great …

These brownies, oh, these brownies. These almond shortbread brownies are something special. They might be the dessert I’ve made the most frequently in the last ten years. They are rich fudgy brownies baked on a buttery shortbread crust. Before the first time I made them, it never occurred to me that brownies would benefit from …

I’ve long dismissed blondies as a sort of lesser dessert. They lacked the rich fudgy qualities of the best brownies, and they were never as flavorful or as texturally interesting as a good chocolate chip cookie. Often, they could be kind of dry, a bit too thin, not soft enough to be cookie dough-gooey and …