The One Sure Cure for Stress …

I hardly need to repeat the statistics for stress, but here’s just a couple from the Washington Post:

54 percent of Americans

are concerned about the level of stress in their everyday lives.

62 percent of Americans say work has a significant impact on stress levels.

73 percent of Americans name money as the number one factor that affects their stress level.

Increasing numbers of children, teenagers and college students report feeling under stress.

We’ve all got our own ways of coping with stress. A great workout usually helps me. An awesome run is a sure stress reliever. I confess that yoga has yet to become a major stress reliever for me, but I’m working on it (I think that I’m just too conditioned to faster exercise and yoga is taking some adjusting for both my mind and body). Frankly, a nap with my cat, Ned, is also a sweet stress reliever.

But, when I have simply got too too too much to do, my all-time favorite stress reliever is to bake.

From scratch.

Be it buttermilk biscuits (which I have only just perfected in the past couple of years), a great pie, cookies or a cake, nothing relieves my mind of all the worries and cares of the world quite like baking.

And the number one stress cure?

Baking brownies.

Who doesn’t adore warm, chewy, chocolaty nutty brownies?

My family and friends will tell you that I make the best brownies, bar none (is that a pun?). I can also tell you that I have personally tested hundreds of recipes before settling, at long last, on the best, which I present to you now:

Supernatural Brownies

Adapted from “Chocolate: From Simple Cookies to Extravagant Showstoppers,” by Nick Malgieri (Morrow Cookbooks, 1998)

Time: About 1 hour

2 sticks (16 tablespoons) butter, more for pan and parchment paper
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate
4 eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup dark brown sugar, such as muscovado
1 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup flour
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or 3/4 cup whole walnuts, optional.

1. Butter a 13-by-9-inch baking pan and line with buttered parchment paper. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In top of a double boiler set over barely simmering water, or on low power in a microwave, melt butter and chocolate together. Cool slightly. In a large bowl or mixer, whisk eggs. Whisk in salt, sugars and vanilla.

2. Whisk in chocolate mixture. Fold in flour just until combined. If using chopped walnuts, stir them in. Pour batter into prepared pan. If using whole walnuts, arrange on top of batter. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until shiny and beginning to crack on top. Cool in pan on rack.

Yield: 15 large or 24 small brownies.

Note: For best flavor, bake 1 day before serving, let cool and store, tightly wrapped.

Don’t skip the parchment paper (parchment paper is my latest “must have” baking accessory) and, hey, you don’t even need to mess with this recipe, but if you do, add 8 oz. of chocolate chips.

Prepare for brownie nirvana …