Fudgy Dark Chocolate Brownies

If you're not a fan of cinnamon, walk away now. I like how cinnamon can cut some of the sweetness of desserts like brownies, and that's what it does here. I made these dark chocolate brownies for a dinner with our friends Natalie and Jeremy, since they very generously invited Sky and I over to do a scotch tasting (Sky and I are going to Edinburgh in a few weeks, so we wanted to be prepared!). Natalie did some research and found that dark chocolate pairs well with certain scotches, and she was right - the mild sweetness and earthiness of dark chocolate and cinnamon went well with the smoky scotch. I used this recipe, although I found I needed to up the cook time by about 10 minutes, so keep checking towards the end.


Total time to cook: 45 minutes

Ingredients:
8 oz unsweetened or mildly sweet dark chocolate, chopped into chunks
3/4 cup margarine
1/4 cup water
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup light brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon

Steps:
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease a 7x11 glass pan
- In a small pot, combine chocolate, margarine and water over medium to low heat. Stir constantly until everything is melted together and smooth.

- Pour chocolate mixture into a medium bowl. Add the two sugars and blend with an electric mixer. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix again. Finally, add the flour, salt and cinnamon and mix until everything is smooth. Pour into the greased pan.

- Bake for about 30-40 minutes, until a knife comes out mostly clean. I set my timer for 30 minutes and then checked every five minutes after that.
- Serve warm or at room temperature.