Wine and chocolate are perfect partners.  Well, in my opinion, wine and cheese are perfect partners, but I don’t see a blue cheese brownie in the near culinary future…unless someone reading this is feeling kinda crazy!  Let me know…

Anyway, a red wine brownie only seems natural.  This recipe comes from Cookiemadness, one of the first food blogs I started following when I started blogging.  Love it.

When I read through the ingredients I was so pleased that I had everything to make these without a trip to the store, always a good thing.  I was also pleased that I had an excuse to open a bottle of wine.  

The brownie batter came together really quickly, and I didn’t have to use my mixer!  All you need is a whisk and a spoon.  About 5 minutes before the brownies were done I made the glaze and it was ready when the brownies came out of the oven.  My brownies were very thin (less than 1/2 inch) in the center of the pan.  My cookiemadness advisor told me to be sure I just greased the BOTTOM of the pan.  Greasing the bottom only ensures that the brownies will bake up evenly instead of sticking to the sides and pulling the brownies outward.  I will try that when I make these again, and I will be making these again.  They are so tasty and different than just a regular fudgy brownie.  There is a slight yeast-like flavor that comes from the wine.  These are good.

Red Wine Brownie Bars

• 4 oz/114 grams unsalted butter (1 stick)
• 1 ounce (28 grams) unsweetened chocolate, broken up
• 1 cup granulated sugar (192 grams)
• 2 eggs
• 1 tablespoon red wine (Cabernet)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cups all-purpose flour (spoon lightly into cup to get 94 grams)

Red Wine Glaze

• 3 ½ tablespoons unsalted butter (50 grams)
• 1 oz unsweetened chocolate
• 4 1/2 tablespoons granulated sugar (60 grams)
• 3 tablespoons red wine (Cabernet)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line an 8 inch square metal pan with foil and grease bottom of pan only or spray the bottom with cooking spray. Don’t spray the sides.

Melt butter in a medium saucepan set over medium heat. Reduce heat to low and add chocolate. Stir until chocolate melts, then add sugar. Continue heating for about 30 seconds to dissolve some of the sugar. Remove from heat and let cool for 5 minutes.

Whisk the eggs, wine, baking powder and salt together in a mixing bowl. Make sure you’ve whisked out any lumps of stray baking powder. Add a small amount of the slightly cooled chocolate mixture to the eggs and whisk until blended, then whisk in the rest of the chocolate mixture. Fold in the flour with a large spatula – the goal is to mix it, but not beat the flour too much. Pour into pan. Drop pan onto counter from about 5 inches once or twice to remove air bubbles. Bake on center rack and bake for 25-30 minutes or until a tester inserted in center comes out clean.

Meanwhile prepare icing. Melt butter over medium heat. Reduce heat to low and add chocolate, sugar and wine. Continue heating over low, stirring often, until mixture is smooth – don’t let it boil. Pour hot wine mixture over fresh-out-of-the-oven brownie/cake base and let stand for an hour or so. The topping should sink down into the cake and settle on top. Let sit until topping has set. I put mine in the refrigerator to speed up the chocolate-setting. This worked well for the topping, but I think the refrigerator adds to much stiffness to the base so if you chill these, let them come back to room temp before serving.