These are the quintessential brownies: gorgeously chewy, deeply fudgy, and perfectly crackly on top…and you can read more about them today at my quite awesome friend Nance’s blog, Gotta Get Baked!

And if you’re here visiting for the first time from Nance’s blog–welcome! I’m so honored to have you here. Please stick around and say hello

Nance and I met up two weeks ago when I visited Vancouver for a children’s lit conference. She is the most absolutely lovely person ever–like the dopplegangers we are, she totally blogged about our meeting too–and I am so excited to be posting over at her fantastic blog!

We had been toying with the idea of swapping guest posts for a while before we met, so I was panicking a little about what recipe I wanted to share. Something fancy? Something simple? Something so whimsical and fun it will hurt your brain?

Well, when I finally met up with Nance, we had a wonderful dinner and she made the very wise decision to get dessert (because what baking bloggers wouldn’t order dessert? Duh). She ordered a fabulous, creamy rich pot de chocolat with chile in it, which was topped off with two large scoops of vanilla ice cream. This was also a very good idea, because that night is when it hit me.