Chocolate brownies (cakey)

As many people like their brownies fudgy as those who prefer them cakey – when I put the question out to my Facebook friends, the responses were evenly split. A few weeks ago, I posted my recipe for lovely, dense and fudgy brownies. Since then, I’ve gone through kilograms of chocolate and butter, trying to perfect lighter, “cakier” brownies… and I’ve finally done it!

The secret seems to be cutting back drastically on the quantity of butter and sugar. I’ve added some sour cream because I saw it used in a brownie recipe in the Bourke Street Bakery cookbook and it seemed like a good idea.

I’ve also started using a metal tin when I make brownies (instead of my old ceramic slice pan) because I’ve read that it gives brownies a better “crumb”.

Of my two versions of brownies, this one has to be my personal favourite.

Ingredients

200 g dark chocolate (buttons, or roughly chopped)

50 g unsalted butter, chopped

2 eggs

200 g caster sugar

100 g plain flour

1½ tsp baking powder

Pinch salt

65 g sour cream

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 170°C. Grease a 26 x 16 cm slice tin and line with baking paper.
2. Melt the chocolate and butter together in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, ensuring the bowl never touches the water. Stir occasionally until butter completely melted. Mixture will stiffen. Remove from heat and allow to cool.
3. Beat eggs and sugar together with an electric mixer until they are well combined and light in colour.
4. Add the cooled chocolate (it will have probably formed a ball) and mix well. Scrape bottom and sides of bowl with a spatula.
5. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt, then add to the chocolate mixture. Mix lightly until colour is even. Scrape bottom and sides of bowl again.
6. Add sour cream and mix until just combined.
7. Turn out into prepared tin and spread out evenly with a spatula or knife. Bake for 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
8. Cool completely in tin before turning out, removing the edges with a big, sharp cook’s knife and slicing into squares. Dust with icing sugar if desired.

Makes 10–12.

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.
• The very top of the brownies will probably wrinkle or pucker during cooking because the brownies rise then deflate. If it worries you, leave the brownies upside down for a while before cutting them- it could “squash out” the wrinkles; honestly, I don’t bother.
• Ensure the brownies are completely cold before slicing, or they will end up with sloppy, rough-looking edges.
• I think these are best eaten within 24 hours of slicing.