Chocolate brownies (fudgy)

Is there anyone who doesn’t like brownies? Surely they must be as rare as those poor suckers who can’t stand chocolate. The brownie, which started life only a little over a century ago in America (okay, I’ve just lost everyone who thought I was talking about Enid Blyton’s mischievous hobgoblin creatures), is now pretty much universally adored.

I can remember the very first time I tasted a brownie. It was at a friend’s birthday party in early high school, we were playing pool in her den and listening to Coldplay’s “Yellow” (it was also the first time I’d heard Coldplay) and I picked up a strange, under-cooked-looking chocolate slice and took a tentative bite. There was no going back.

I understand that everyone has their own strong opinion of what makes the perfect brownie (fudgy or cakey, choc-chips or not, nuts or not, packet mix or homemade), so I’m not going to be stupid enough to promise that my recipe will rock your socks. But I can assure you that it’s rich, dense, fudgy, and I love it to bits – or, as Chris Martin sang, “you know I love you soo-ooo”.

Ingredients

250 g dark chocolate (buttons, or roughly chopped)

130 g unsalted butter, chopped

300 g caster sugar

100 g plain flour

50 g cocoa powder

3 eggs

Icing sugar, to decorate (optional)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 160°C. Grease a 27 x 18 cm slice pan and line with baking paper.
2. Combine caster sugar, plain flour and cocoa powder in a large bowl.
3. Melt the dark chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, ensuring bowl never touches the water. Stir occasionally until mixture is melted and smooth.
4. Add chocolate mixture to flour mixture and mix thoroughly. Add eggs and mix again.
5. Spread mixture into the prepared pan and even out the surface a little with a spatula or knife. Bake 30 minutes or until just firm. Be careful: over-cooking will make the edges too hard and crunchy.
6. Cool in pan, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely. When cold, slice into squares with a sharp knife.
7. If desired, sprinkle with sifted icing sugar before serving.

Makes 12 squares.

 

Tips

• When melting chocolate in a bowl over simmering water, be careful not to burn yourself on steam escaping from between the bowl and the saucepan - especially when you're stirring the chocolate. You can actually buy double-boilers to use for this exact kind of thing, but I haven't bothered yet.
• Including some white choc-chips after Step 4 will add some interest and texture to the brownies.
• I always remove the outer edge of the brownies to give each square a neat, symmetrical look. But that’s just me.