Up until yesterday afternoon, my boyfriend and I didn't have much of a New Year's Eve plan. There were options, a couple of different friends were having parties, one of my favorite bars in the whole world was having a no coverage charge evening and some friends had invited us over for pizza (sadly, I didn't actually get the text message with that invite until after we ordered take out sushi), but no hard and fast plan.

While we were having lunch at Marathon Grill at around 3 pm, we stumbled upon what became an integral part of the plan: brownie sundaes. With that idea in place, we ran to the store for ingredients. However, when we got back to my place and I started looking at recipes, I discovered that I had forgotten to by any unsweetened chocolate and I was fresh out (I've been away for two weeks and my memory of my supply inventory has gotten foggy). However, I had a bunch of bittersweet chocolate, some semi-sweet chips and unsweetened cocoa powder and decided to improvise based on a recipe for Triple-Chocolate Fudge Brownies from The Gourmet Cookbook (the big yellow one).

The batter was amazing tasting and so I had high hopes for the brownies. And they were good, but not as amazing as I wanted them to be. However, with vanilla ice cream and whipped cream, they were definitely doable. However, they worked some alchemy last night and when I woke up this morning, they had become the brownies I had hoped for--dense, fudgy and transcendentally chocolate-y. They are worth making, especially if you are able to let them rest for 12-24 hours before digging in. New Year's Eve brownies
adapted from Triple-Chocolate Fudge Brownies recipe in The Gourmet Cookbook

6 ounces good bittersweet chocolate (I used a combination of Scharffen Berger and some random Trader Joe's stuff)
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 large eggs
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 tablespoon Kahlua

Preheat over to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a 9 x 13 baking pan, knocking off as much of the excess flour as possible.

Melt bittersweet chocolate and butter together in a double boiler, with the heat set very low. Stir until smooth and then remove from heat. Whisk in the cocoa powder, sugar and vanilla.

When batter is lukewarm, whisk in the eggs, incorporating them one at a time. Add salt and flour, stirring until just combined. Stir in chocolate chips last.

Pour batter into prepped baking pan and smooth top. I always gently bang the pan on the counter top a couple of times, to get out some of the air bubbles. Bake until a tester comes out clean. I kept them in for 25 minutes and the edges got a little too done for my tastes. Start checking at 18 minutes or so, to prevent them from getting overdone.

For best results, let them hang out for 12-24 hours before digging in, as they improve drastically overnight.