After trying a countless number of brownie recipes, I've finally found THE one.  Even I, a devout "do it yourself(er)" felt that the cheapo-meapo boxed varieties were more than sufficient in taste and texture.  I actually preferred the boxed version to any I had tried making from scratch.  I couldn't verify the ingredients in the mix, however, so I avoided making them.  

I decided that it was high time that I search for a good recipe.  Certainly somebody has been able to figure it out.  I tried a recipe from New York Times.  I tried a few on AllRecipes.  I searched YouTube and tried two from there.  I tried the recipes on the back of bars of semi-sweet chocolate wrappers.  I went to my recipe books.  Each and every time, I was terribly disappointed.  I decided to give it one last try and made the Tasty 101 The Best Brownies You'll Ever Eat recipe and they absolutely nailed it.  I made a couple of modifications which I am outlining in the recipe I'm sharing below but these were so much better than boxed.  These are so good that I am no longer searching which is great because now I can move on to trying out other recipes and sharing the best of the best with you.

Here we go:

Tasty 101's The Best Brownie You'll Ever Eat

Ingredients:

2 1/2 sticks of butter (they call for unsalted but I used salted and it was fine)

8 ounces of semi-sweet chocolate (they said high quality but I used store brand chocolate chips and it was fine)

3/4 cup cocoa (this time I used a higher quality cocoa but I'm not sure that it made a difference), divided

1 tablespoon espresso powder (I ground my French roast coffee to the molecular level and it was fine)

2 cups granulated sugar

1/2 cup dark brown sugar (I used granulated and added a teaspoon of molasses and it was fine)

2 teaspoons vanilla extract (I make my own with vanilla beans in a vintage beer bottle filled with vodka - it's better than fine but if I didn't have any vanilla extract, I would use straight up vodka and it would be fine)

2 teaspoons kosher salt (I made no adjustment for the salted butter)

6 large eggs

1 cup all purpose flour

flaky sea salt for sprinkling (Maldon Sea Salt Flakes (check Amazon))

Directions (or how I did it):

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a small pot, melt the butter on the stove until it starts to bubble.  Turn the stove off and remove from heat.  Spray and line a 9" x 13" baking pan (I used aluminum foil because I don't have parchment - it was fine).  Go back to the butter and add the coffee, the chocolate chips, and 1/4 cup of cocoa powder and mix until  homogenous.

Turn your attention to your KitchenAid stand mixer or a hand mixer.  Add both sugars, salt, eggs, and vanilla to a medium size bowl and beat until fluffy (a few minutes - maybe four).

Pour the homogenous chocolate mixture (the one in the pot) into the fluffy eggs while continuing to mix.  

You're finished with the mixer.  Pick up a rubber spatula.  You never want to over work flour when making anything other than breads - period.  Sift flour and remaining 1/2 cup of cocoa powder into bowl and fold into egg mixture until incorporated.

Pour into prepared pan and place in middle rack of the oven.  Bake for 20 minutes and then remove the pan from the oven and drop or bang on counter a couple/few times (this is what they did in the video).  This is the point where they sprinkled flaky sea salt over the brownies (I have flaky sea salt but I forgot this step).  Return to oven for an additional 20 minutes (mine needed 25 minutes).  Check for doneness with a toothpick (there will still be a tiny bit that will stick to the toothpick but that's okay).  Remove from oven.  Use the lining to lift the brownies out of the pan.  Cut immediately or wait until cool.  Either way, the brownies will stick to the knife unless you wipe it clean between cuts.

They truly are the best brownies.  Trust me, I've tried so many recipes and now I'm done searching.  This is THE one.  Enjoy and watch the video on YouTube.  I would.  I did.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvJm4pQZ04s