Brownie or cake, never the twain shall meet

As much as I like chocolate, I'll rarely eat a brownie from a restaurant or buffet table. They're usually vaguely chocolatey, mostly dry and require about a gallon of milk to choke down. Even worse, they're sort of fluffy brownies (or heavy cake, however you look at it). If you want cake, have cake, but don't call it a brownie.

I firmly adhere to a couple of brownie rules:
1) No leavening. None. Don't add baking powder or soda. Don't whip egg whites.
2) The butter and chocolate should be melted when they go into the batter. I'm sure there are a bunch of technical mumbo-jumbo reasons this works out better (chocolate solids being fat soluble, etc), but I think it just makes a smooth, gooey batter that stays smooth and gooey when you bake it. (Not to mention the chef gets a nice treat, but that's our secret...shhhhh)
3) Brownies should be eaten with milk or something nice to drink, but if you need more than a glass, the brownie isn't worth eating.
4) No leavening. Seriously.

For recipes, mostly I stick with the "Gooey brownie" recipe from the Fannie Farmer Baking Book. For a little something different, I found a great brownie recipe from Sunset calling for Mexican Chocolate, which has cinnamon added. Yummy!

Ooh, and another recipe I did that got good reviews was a caramel brownie. I thought it was a bit too sweet, but the brownie recipient (I baked them as a bribe) thought they were most excellent. To make them, just make your favorite brownie recipe, and pour half of the batter into the bottom of a baking dish. In a saucepan over medium-low heat, melt about 20-30 caramel candies (yes, unwrap them first) with 2 tablespoons evaporated milk. Pour the caramel over the bottom half of the brownie batter, and spread the rest of the batter evenly over the caramel layer. Bake as instructed and voila! If you really want to guild the lily, top the cooled brownies with some more melted caramely goodness. Oh, and I suppose you could add some nuts. If you're into that sort of thing. Weirdo.