Whole-wheat Flour Brownies

I have been trying many homemade brownie recipes in the past year and am always on a quest to find the best recipe. I have found that there are generally three distinct styles of brownies: fudgy, chewy and cakey. My favorite kind of brownie is a cross between a fudgy brownie and a chewy brownie. I modify recipes and play around with them all the time and, so far, this is the fudgiest recipe I have developed. My family has a CSA membership with a local farm, so we receive fresh vegetables weekly during the growing season. The farm also grinds their own organic, whole-wheat flour, and I look forward to my bag of that each spring. Using whole-wheat flour does make the brownies a bit more granular and rustic, but in this recipe the texture stays very fudgy. I really love cooking with great organic ingredients. The closer my family is to the source of the food, the happier I am and the healthier we will all be. Community Supported Agriculture helps out your local farmer, too. I would highly recommend finding a CSA near you for some great buys and/or memberships. Fantastic, fresh food and no pesticides. As far as I know, most, if not all, CSAs do not use genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in food production. I know mine does not and is a completely organic farm. This also gives me peace of mind when feeding my family.

In this recipe, I decided to use semi-sweet chocolate chips instead of cocoa powder, which is usually my choice. I was hoping that the chocolate chips would help the brownies be more chewy and keep them from becoming too dry. The last time I made brownies I used cocoa powder with my CSA flour. The brownies came out more cakey and a bit on the dry side for my taste. They were still delicious and had a great chocolate flavor, however, they crumbled apart more than I liked. I will write another hub soon using the last recipe I developed for those of you that prefer cakey brownies. I will also cook them for slightly little less time so they are not as crumbly and won't fall apart so easily. The melted chocolate chips definitely make for a fudgy brownie texture. These are really quite gooey, and I personally love that in a brownie. This batch fits my own preferences much better. This particular recipe also makes for a very flaky top crust, which I love. As usual, these brownies are even more delicious the day after they are made. I can never resist brownies on the first day that I make them, but I have to admit, they are always better on the second day.

I tested these brownies out on a bunch of my husband's friends and they loved them, all of the guys went back for seconds. I think one even went back for a third helping. I hope when you try this recipe out, you enjoy them as much as we did!