Chocolate Brownies!

Last week on Catch of the Day they advertised a brownie tin. I’ve wanted to make great looking dark chocolate brownies for a little while, so I gave it a crack with one of the included recipes last Saturday night after I picked it up at the Post Office. It was a disaster.

The recipe that came with the tin wasn’t very explanatory and literally was a list of ingredients, and what order to add them in. There was no saviour tips and no “if you see this, this means this” instructions. It failed. Well, I thought it did. The recipe had too many eggs, and it just seemed undercooked. I gave up after an hour in the oven and threw it in the bin.

Last weekend I tried again, with a recipe adapted from baking911. They’ve come out so brilliantly and exactly as I expected. I must admit I was extremely disappointed on Saturday when they failed, because it was the third new thing I’d made in as many weeks that didn’t work out like I wanted it to. These ones were much better and I took a lot of care with them. I also learnt that I won’t use the divider that came with the brownie tin for fudgey recipes as they are too sticky.

Without further ado…

Chocolate Fudge Brownies
(makes one 8×8 in pan)

Ingredients

• 1 cup Plain Flour
• 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
• 1 stick Unsalted Butter (approximately 113 grams. 90% of the recipes I use work in “sticks”. You get used to it)
• 4 ounces chopped dark chocolate (again, approximately 113 grams! Haha)
• 4 eggs
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 175C / 350F and thoroughly grease pan with baking spray. If you’re still worried, line it with baking paper for easy removal.
2. Mix flour and baking powder in a medium bowl and set aside.
3. Melt butter over medium heat in a small saucepan, stirring constantly. When just melted, take off of the heat and add in the chopped chocolate. Keep stirring until all melted and mixed through (will take a few minutes). Leave to the side to cool.
4. In another bowl, lightly beat eggs and vanilla (with a hand whisk). Stir in sugar.
5. Mix in the cooled butter/chocolate mixture.
6. Fold in flour mixture. When almost combined, add the walnuts (optional).
7. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until a skewer comes out slightly moist. The tops of the brownies should sound hollow when tapped. They will harden as they cool, so don’t worry about under baking them.

They are very chewy – the walnuts really are optional, if you don’t like nuts don’t add them in at the end – they can be a tad overwhelming. Enjoy