Pinot Noir Chocolate Brownies - Perfect Valentine's Day Dessert!!

I, somehow, stumbled upon this recipe this week.  It is from the Creative Culinary Blog.  I thought WHAT a perfect dessert for Valentine's Day.  Of course, the original recipe uses ingredients that are not on my Walmart budget!!  She uses HandCraft Pinot Noir wine (?) - Walmart doesn't carry that, so I bought a $6.99 bottle of Pinot Noir.  I am not a wine expert and, hey, this is brownies - not a gourmet meal!  She also used Ghirardelli ground cocoa - again not something you will find in Walmart - so I opted for Hershey's - just as good!

On to the recipe . . .

Ingredients:
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
2 T Pinot Noir wine
3/4 cup Cocoa (I used Hershey's)
2/3 cup all purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
*1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Icing:

4 T unsalted butter
1 oz unsweetened chocolate
4 1/2 T grandulated white sugar
3 T Pinor Noir wine

Brownies:
Preheat oven to 350 F.
Combine the eggs with the sugar and vanilla.
Add the melted butter and wine.
Separately, mix the cocoa with the flour and baking powder.
Add the cocoa/flour mixture to the egg mixture (add nuts if you are adding those). 
Spread into an 8 x 8 inch greased pan.
Bake 25 to 30 minutes.

Chocolate Glaze:

Melt the butter over medium heat.
Reduce heat to low and add the chocolate, sugar and wine.
Continue heating over low heat, stirring until the mixture is smooth - do not let it boil!!
Spoon hot icing over fresh brownies and le+t stand for a minimum of an hour or two.

Verdict:

My husband loved the brownies.  I thought they were a little dry.  So. if I make them again, I will shorten the baking time maybe by a couple of minutes.  The glaze is out-of-this-world!!  Cooking does evaporate the alcohol so you don't have to worry about feeding these to children!!