Brownies

So Thanksgiving break gave me some time to bake finally horray!
I wanted brownies and cookies so I started the quest for my personal brownie perfection recipe.
This time I used smitten kitchens recipe which she took from Cooks Illustrated
http://smittenkitchen.com/2006/10/and-then-i-went-shoe-shopping/
However I decided to mess with it. As much butter as chocolate? That is a sin. I left out 1/2 a stick of butter so I *only* used 1 whole stick. To keep the wet/dry ratio in check I threw in some chocolate chips, of course I didn't measure it. I used Godiva bittersweet chocolate by the way.
I also had problems with the sugar. We only had raw sugar. So it is bigger crystals than could stir in. Fortunately they melted while baking so of course it is still sweet. Also I left out 1/4 of a cup of the sugar so it was down to 2 cups of sugar in the end.
Other issue is that I am not sure I baked them enough? They supposedly take only 30-35 minutes so after 45 minutes I just pulled them out, the toothpick test wasn't working for me

Overall they are fudgy and yummy but I will continue hunting. I did like using cake flour, probably because we only have whole wheat flour (ew in brownies), but I like to think that it contributed to it being fluffy.