I made some slight adjustments to the recipe and if you follow the link above you’ll see he had macadamias – I’m not the biggest fan of nuts in brownies (also because of allergy concerns with some people) but chuck a handful or two in at the end and mix them through if desired.

Recipe: Chocolate Brownies (no nuts)

Ingredients:

• 250g Dark Chocolate
• 250g Unsalted Butter
• 205g Caster Sugar
• 175g Eggs (3 or 4 eggs depending on egg size. Advisable to measure)
• 110g Plain Flour

Method:

1. Get all your ingredients ready first. Your eggs should be as close as possible to room temperature – if you use them straight out of the fridge, it will react with the warm chocolate mixture.
2. Preheat oven to 160C and grease and line a square tray. Roughly 25-30cm square is ideal.
3. Measure out the chocolate and butter into a saucepan and set aside.
4. Whisk together the eggs and sugar in a seperate bowl, and sift out the flour in a third bowl.
5. Melt the chocolate and butter on a low heat and allow to cool slightly.
6. Pour a little amount of the chocolate mixture into the eggs and sugar and mix to combine. This will temper the mixture if the chocolate is still a bit warm. We don’t want to cook the eggs! Add the rest and whisk.
7. Add the sifted flour in stages and whisk until combined.
8. Pour into prepared pan and place straight into the oven. Here I sprinkled a handful of chocolate chips along the top for effect.
9. After about 25 minutes, have a look to see if the top is still ultra spongy – if it is, leave it another 5 minutes
10. You can test to see if it’s done with a skewer, but we still want some crumbs to cling to it, dry brownies are no fun!
11. Remove tray from oven and remove brownie slice from the tray onto a cooling tray. Let it cool completely before slicing!
12. Dust the top with icing sugar and trim all four sides, then cut into equal rectangles. Enjoy with a hot drink

You should have a very evil, chocolate and delicious brownie, that’s not too chocolatey, not too dry or moist, and melts away in your mouth.

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