Best brownies … even better

My mother has the best brownie recipe. (Seriously.) It's from my grandmother and it's simple, foolproof and delicious. Not much flour, so you get dense, chocolate-y, fudge-y brownies, not fluffy, store-bought mix chocolate squares or their "from-scratch" clones. Brownies should not be flaky! On this there can be no debate.

Additional advantages: you can cut them small (because they're so goddamn rich) and you can pretty easily make them gluten free by subbing gluten-free flour for the flour in the recipe.

I've made them even better by adding cranberries. They're fine on their own, and from time to time I will make them straight, no berries involved. But adding cranberries, which sit and then pop as the batter bakes, adds a tart surprise which balances the deep chocolate. They're pretty fantastic.

Yum, cranberry-brownie mix.

Here's the recipe:

4 squares/ounces (about 3/4 cup) unsweetened chocolate
1 t vanilla
1 c butter (The original recipe says margarine. DO NOT USE MARGARINE EVER. You should not have it in your house.)
2 c sugar
1 c flour
3 eggs beaten
1/4 t salt
1 c walnuts (optional, they go well with cranberries of course)
8 oz cranberries, frozen or fresh

Here's the easy part: you don't need any powered instruments to make this. There's no sugar to cream with butter. Just get a bowl and a whisk. And 15 minutes. Literally even a slow and less competent chef should be able to get this in the oven in 15 minutes, and then there are only a couple of dishes to clean anyway.

Melt the butter and chocolate together. Add the sugar and vanilla and mix (this will cool the mixture down enough to add the eggs). Beat the eggs, and add them to this mixture, followed by the flour and salt. Stir in cranberries and walnuts, evenly distributing them though the batter (it's okay if they cool the batter down and it becomes almost like taffy).

Place in a 9x9 buttered and floured pan, bake at 350 for 40-60 minutes until a knife inserted comes out clean. Cool and serve. These freeze well, too. And they are delicious!