Classic River Brownies

For those of you who usually use a box, homemade brownies are the best!! I use a recipe very similar to this one and love it!!

Ingredients:

24 ounces of semisweet of bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1 cup butter cut into chunks
6 large eggs
2 cups sugar
1 tbs vanilla
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt

Select two of the following ingredients to add:
1/2 toasted of chopped walnuts or pecans
1 cup peanut butter or butterscotch chips
1/2 cup sweetened flaked coconut
1 cup chocolate covered peanuts
1 cup finely chopped peppermint bark or use Andes mints chopped (yum)

Preheat to 350. Butter a 9x13 pan and set aside. Melt the chocolate and butter in a glass or stainless steel pan over a saucepan of simmering water, remove from heat and set aside.
Meanwhile in a large bowl whisk together the eggs and sugar, fold in the melted chocolate and vanilla. In a separate bowl whisk together the remaining dry ingredients then fold into the chocolate/sugar mixture. At this point if you are going to add any of the above ingredients stir them into batter now. Bake on the center rack about 40-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out with a few crumbs.