The quest for the best brownie

        My first baking  job was a complete accident. I was in my 3rd year of college as an English/Art double major, and I needed some loot to keep my cat Tofu and I afloat. I applied at many places, but was quite excited to get an interview at a coffeehouse  for a barista job.  The woman who interviewed me acted more like we were just hanging out than talking shop, and when she found out I was an artist, for some reason she instantly wanted to make me a baker.
         
I had honestly not baked much,  and really considered myself more of a cook. I'd been a vegetarian since I was 13 and it required a lot of experimenting in the kitchen, but she was convinced I'd be great. I was kind of horrified. I just wanted to serve lattes and chat with bohemians. Baking sounded scary, as though it occured very early, and like it involved math, which is something I just don't do...
        
She told me to come in the next day and start working with the early morning baker at 7 a.m., after she'd been there 3 hours. I went home scratching my pixie cut head, a bit confused about how this hippie had bamboozled me into becoming a baker overnight...

            
I got in the next morning, and the place smelled just incredible. The aroma of fresh bread, coffee and muffins swirled through the air  and made me feel both anxious and inspired.I glanced longingly at the espresso bar as I was led past it into the baking area.  A wall of warm sourdough smell hit me, and suddenly, from behind a plume of flour, a large woman appeared. Her name was Trudy, and she'd been a baker for 18 years. She had dreadlocks braided down her back to her tailbone, and the hard look of someone who was ready to snap my skinny neck at the slightest bit of sass. She had a huge necklace made of what I imagined to be the vertebrae of all novice bakers before me around her neck, but someone else said it was birds bones of some sort.She looked me up and down, and then  "Well, let's get to it girl." was all she said, and pulled out an enormous  stack of berry stained recipes. We went through 10 recipes that first day, and it turned out I had a long way to go.    
           
At first, She was pretty consistently  irked at me, and with good reason, because I had no idea which end was up. For the first week  I watched in awe as she kneaded bread with one hand and drank coffee with the other. She made soups and granola and ten kinds of muffins in an hour, telling me all about the things she'd learned over the years, and giving me advice about how to hold a whisk and make a vegan cookie. She kicked a 500 pound mixer out of her way to get at something behind it without flinching. She told me I had to get a great recipe of every popular baked good, like chocolate chip cookies, quiche, muffins, rye bread and perfect it. That's how you get people to love your food, by practicing every day and really loving what you do.
        
After 6 months of working with her, I realized I did love baking, by golly! And I wanted to be good at it. Also, I wanted Trudy to not stick me in the oven out of aggravation, so I got a good collection of good recipes going. Eventually, Trudy left for another baking gig out East, and left me to my own devices. She was a terrifying and amazing woman, and an awesome baker, and I hope she's out there somewhere scaring people into loving their craft as much as I do, because 9 years and 4 restaurants later, I'm still at it.  I try to have several different recipes for  everything, because as anyone whose ever  cooked or baked knows, there is a lot of trail and error involved in finding a recipe everyone will beg you for after they taste it. But there is always a shining star in the recipe universe, and in my quest for the perfect brownie, I think I've found a winner.  I've gotten nothing but thumbs up and black-teethed grins from the taste-testers  every time. 

Best Brownies

Ingredients:
- 2 four ounce bars of semi-sweet baking chocolate
- 2 cups packed brown sugar
- 4 eggs
-1/2 tsp. baking powder
-1/2 tsp. salt
-2 sticks unsalted butter
-2 tsp. vanilla
-1/1/2 cups all-purpose flour
-3/4 cup toasted walnuts, chopped (optional)
-1/3 cup semi-sweet chips ( I use Ghiradelli or Guittard brand chips and they are both amazing)
Ganache frosting:
-1.5 cups dark chocolate chips, melted
- 1/2 cup  half and half
-1 tsp. vanilla
Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a half-sheet pan  with non-stick spray. In a saucepan, melt chocolate bars and butter on low heat until smooth and incorporated. Remove pan and cool to room temperature. Stir in brown sugar and vanilla.Place eggs in stand mixer or beat with a hand-mixer. beat in brown sugar and vanilla. In a bowl, sift flour, baking powder and salt. add flour mixture slowly and mix well. Stir in walnuts and 1/3 cup chocolate chips, and pour batter into pan, bake for 25-30 minutes. Do not over bake, they may still look a bit underdone, but as long as they're firm they should be ready. Cool. 
For Ganache: melt chocolate chips, whisk in half and half and vanilla. Smooth over top of cooled brownies and let set.

To me, a brownie should be moist and cake-like, and melt in your mouth  a bit.

 The sign of a well- baked brownie is that it should leave some crumbs when you but into it, or bite off a hunk. This is a very rich chocolate flavor, and I'd say it goes best with a great big cup of dark roast coffee!

It can also be garnished by sprinkling the walnuts on top. This recipe is great, so for now my quest for the perfect brownie has stalled, because there's really no good reason to mess with a good thing.