What’s better than a warm, super dense, super fudgey brownie? A warm, super dense, super fudgey brownie sprinkled with sea salt.
It’s my newest addiction. Sprinkling sea salt on every chocolatey thing that comes out of the oven. I think sea salt is just as good (better?) for enhancing the flavor of chocolate as vanilla.
Stretchy pants might be the greatest foodie invention ever, right after the KitchenAid Mixer. And the dishwasher. The math is simple. 1 pan of brownies + Sea salt = Stretchy pants. Just eating one brownie is like just trying to… eat one brownie. You know what I mean. An entire pan of brownies doesn’t last very long around here, even though there are only two of us. The Foodie Groom, after all, is a growing boy!
And yes. I just blamed the rapid disappearance of an entire pan of brownies all on him. While I lick the chocolate from my fingers to keep it off of my keyboard 
The recipe below is my husband’s favorite brownie recipe, a saltier version of Cook’s Illustrated Classic Brownies. You’ve seen how I like to eat my brownies. My husband will take his warmed, buried under a mound of cookies & cream ice cream. Or cold, straight from the pan, on his way out the door to work - because it’s important that growing boys don’t skip breakfast!
There’s no right or wrong way, that’s for sure.
Brownies
1 cup (4 oz) pecans or walnuts, chopped medium
1 1/4 cups (5 oz) cake flour
3/4 teaspoon Fleur de Sel, plus more for garnish
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
6 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped fine
12 Tbsp unsalted butter
2 1/4 cups sugar
4 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Spread nuts evenly on a baking sheet and toast in oven until fragrant, 5 to 8 minutes. Set aside. Prepare a 9×13 pan with baking spray or your preferred non-stick method.
Whisk to combine flour, salt, and baking powder in medium bowl; set aside.
Melt butter in the microwave. Add chopped chocolate and let sit for 2 minutes. Whisk until smooth. If necessary, eat butter-chocolate mixture for an additional 20 seconds. Pour into bowl of stand mixer.
On medium speed, add sugar until combined. Add eggs on at a time, until thoroughly combined and then add vanilla. Add flour mixture in three additions, mixing until well combined.
Transfer batter to prepared pan; using spatula, spread batter into corners of pan and smooth surface. Sprinkle toasted nuts evenly over batter and bake until toothpick or wooden skewer inserted into center of brownies comes out with few moist crumbs attached, 30 to 35 minutes. Sprinkle with additional fleur de sel and let cool.
Adapted from: Cook’s Illustrated