Medium Rare Brownies

The brownies became famous almost as soon as the doors of Proof of the Pudding opened in 1979. Perhaps they would not seem so extraordinary today in a world where artisanal extra dark chocolates flavored with lavender or chilis are sold in every grocery store. But timing is everything and their arrival on the food scene in Atlanta helped put our store on the map. I owe some of that to Elliott Mackle, an Atlanta food writer who made his way to the shop not long after we opened. He was the first to write about them, dubbing them "medium rare" to describe the fudgy rich centers that are their hallmark.

The brownie recipe has a long family history that predates even my marriage to Buck. Goldstein family lore has it that the original version came from "Aunt Nora," who was not actually Buck's aunt but somehow related to his Aunt Pat Papper by marriage. It seems Aunt Pat, who by mysterious means obtained the already famous family recipe, shared it with her then sister-in-law, Grace Goldstein, my mother-in-law. After Buck and I married and it looked liked I was in the family to stay, Grace, in turn, sent me a handwritten copy of "Nora's Brownies" which I still have in my recipe files. I was instructed to never reveal the source of the recipe because it could get Aunt Pat in a lot of trouble. Until now I never have. While researching this history and comparing the original and the production recipe we used in those early days at the Proof, I discovered that Margaret Ann Surber, our founding chef, had obviously amped up the level of chocolate. MA innately understood that one can never have too much chocolate. Thousands are in her debt.