‘The Pioneer Woman’: Ree Drummond’s Dark Chocolate Brownies Recipe Is the Decadent Dessert of Your Dreams
Ree Drummond has a rich and decadent chocolate brownies recipe that’s perfect for the chocoholic in your life. The Pioneer Woman star adds three types of chocolate to the batter and bakes the brownies until they’re perfectly soft and gooey.
Ree Drummond makes a dark chocolate brownies recipe that will win over chocolate fans
Drummond wrote about her dark chocolate brownies in a 2014 blog post on The Pioneer Woman website.
“Are you a dark chocolate person or a milk chocolate person?” she asked. “I have to say, I’m more in the light/milk chocolate camp myself.”
She continued, “My dad, on the other hand, has always been a dark chocolate addict. When I was growing up and my mom would buy those little bags of miniature Hershey’s candy bars, he’d go straight for the Special Dark chocolate bars no one else wanted.”
Drummond went on to share that her dad’s favorite gift is “a box of good dark chocolates” so she developed a dark chocolate brownie recipe her dad could appreciate.
“For these ultra-rich, ultra-decadent brownies, I basically adapted the regular brownie recipe that I’ve used for years,” the Food Network host explained. “I made it in the saucepan rather than the mixer, and I added cocoa powder on top of the baking chocolate. Then, just before putting the batter into the pan, I stirred in chocolate chips.”
How to make Ree Drummond’s dark chocolate brownies
Drummond demonstrated how to make the brownie bites version of her dark chocolate brownies during an episode of The Pioneer Woman. She made the treat as part of a 6-foot sundae dessert for a birthday party.
She chopped unsweetened chocolate and added it to a pot with butter and melted the ingredients together. “Now these are very, very chocolatey brownie bites so I’m also going to add a cup of unsweetened cocoa powder,” the Food Network host explained.
After stirring everything together, Drummond turned off the heat and allowed the mixture to cool for a few minutes. She added sugar and stirred it halfway, then added vanilla and stirred, poured in eggs and flour and stirred it halfway, then added semi-sweet chocolate chips, and stirred the batter together.
The Pioneer Woman star poured the batter into a sheet pan. “If you don’t let the brownie batter cool before you move on, the chocolate chips will just melt” she noted. “And you want to still see the chunks of chocolate chips in there.”
Drummond shared the secret to baking her brownies perfectly
While the batter provides all the decadence you can handle, there’s also a sweet spot when it comes to baking the dessert. Drummond baked the brownies in a 350 degree Fahrenheit oven for 30 minutes and checked them with a toothpick.
“If they are overly gooey/messy, return to the oven for 5 to 10 more minutes,” her recipe explains. “Allow to cool completely (important!), then cut into small squares.”
Drummond’s “cook’s note” explains how the brownies will firm up more as they cool.
“When warm, the brownies will seem overly gooey/soft,” she shared. “As they cool, they will firm up. (Brownies are best several hours after baking or even the next day!)”
The full recipe is available on the Food Network website.
