Chocolate Brownies

Chocolate brownies! There you go. The statement is made. Do I need to say more?

Well, I suppose I do otherwise it would be pretty poor post right? OK, thinking cap on…

Chocolate brownies. Let’s be honest here, chocolate brownies are not the best dish if you’re on a diet, but how good are they!? Just the best ever! Have a look at these ones… Yum Yum!!

Now my good friend’s daughter, Daisy, told me the other day that when she tries to make brownies they end up flat and hard and always sink. I told her I’d make some for you guys that she could try and see what she thought. So, yesterday, I took the ones in the photograph above over to Daisy for her to try. “Wow!” she gasped as munched on these light but oh so chocolatey beauties. “This is exactly what I’ve been trying to make” Daisy exclaimed…

So for all you Foodie Fans, and for my mate Daisy, this is how you do it…

1. Get those ingredients together

You should know me by now. It’s critical to get all the ingredients together before you start any cooking, in this case, baking. Just 6 ingredients for these bad boys, if you put all the chocolate together. I’ve laid them all out below:

As always the printable recipe with the exact measurements is below. I do want to make one observation though. Now, I haven’t made chocolate brownies for a while but whenever I do I lay at the ingredients and almost stop. Why? Haha! Well, look!! 3 types of chocolate, almost a whole pack of butter. And look at that sugar!!!

If it wasn’t for the dream of eating those wonderful light chocolate drops from heaven the good side of my conscience would win ????. Oh well, sorry Sainty. I’m sticking with the dark side, or dark chocolate today…????

2. Make the chocolate sauce

Firstly, cut the butter into small cubes and place in a glass mixing bowl. Next, break the dark chocolate into small pieces and add this to the bowl.

Secondly, you will need to make a bain-marie. This is a French phrase but is a simple method for melting a product that could burn if subjected to direct heat. Chocolate is in this category.

To make the bain-marie just get a saucepan smaller than the mixing bowl. Next, pour water into the pan such that the mixing bowl can sit in the top of the pan but not touch the water.

Now put the saucepan and mixing bowl on a hob at a low heat and as the water heats up so does the bowl. This then melts the chocolate and butter mix.

Keep stirring until everything has melted and you have a smooth and creamy chocolate sauce.

3. Whisk the sugar and eggs

Now, Daisy, I hope you are listening. This is the key step to make your brownie light…

Take another glass mixing bowl and add the eggs. Give them a quick whisk so the yolks and whites have mixed together. Next, add the sugar and whisk away…

Now, this is where I have to apologise to you all. When you whisk the eggs and sugar together you should use an electric whisk and blitz the mixture for 6 or more minutes, depending on the strength of your mixer. The end product should be a mixture where, when you remove the whisk from the mixture, the residual mix dripping from the whisk heads takes a second or so to sink back into the rest of the mixture.

The reason for may need to apologise is that when I turned my electric whisk on it didn’t work. This resulted in me having to spend around 15 minutes hand whisking the eggs and sugar (oh my wrist!!) and then forgetting to take any photographs of the final mix. Doh!

So sorry for this. I will stand in a corner for 30 minutes or do lines or whatever punishment you deem right for such a heinous crime. Next time I make these wonderful chocolate brownies though I will add a photograph for sure.

4. Fold in the chocolate sauce flour and cocoa powder

So now you have alight and aerated egg and sugar mix. Daisy, now a bit of science for you…

When you beat the eggs you add air to the mixture. This is why it doubles in size. More importantly, this air is what makes the chocolate brownie light. When in the oven, the air bubbles in the mix heat up and expand. This makes the whole brownie (or sponge really) lift up. Then, when the brownie cooks, the whole mixture dries out and hardens to keep the shape of the air bubbles. This is what makes it light.

What is really important, therefore, is not to knock the air out of the egg and sugar mixture when you add the chocolate and flour.

Firstly, slowly pour the chocolate sauce into the egg and sugar mix and take a wooden or plastic spatula and slowly mix the chocolate sauce in using a figure of 8 movement. Once mixed it should be a mottled brown and white colour. Again, apologies for no photographs.

Finally, sieve the flour and cocoa powder into the mix (so there are no lumps) and use the same figure of 8 motion to mix all together. Make sure you scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl.

The end mix will look like this:

5. Pour into a baking tray

Firstly, turn the oven on to 180C / 160C Fan to get warmed up. Next, take a 20cm x 20cm or equivalent baking tray and cover the bottom with baking paper. Now, slowly spoon the mix into the tray and spread evenly. Again, do this slowly so you don’t knock any air out of the mixture.

Now place in the preheated oven on a middle shelf and bake for 25 minutes.

6. Is the chocolate brownie cooked?

Daisy, are you listening? ???? This is the other crucial steps and will stop your brownie sinking…

After 25 minutes open the oven and pull the oven try out. Give the baking tray a little shake. If the chocolate brownie is still wobbly in the middle then pop it back the oven for another 5 minutes then repeat this the shaking exercise. Keep doing it until there is no wobble and the whole chocolate brownie is firm.

When firm, just remove from the oven and set aside in the tin to cool.

7. Serve the wonderful chocolate brownie

Once cooled down to room temperature tip the brownie out onto a chopping board and remove the baking paper.

Now flip the brownie back over and cut into whatever size you want. Try not to eat the whole thing at once!!

 

And there you have it! A wonderfully soft and light chocolate brownie.

 

OK, my friends. That’s it for this time. I hope you enjoy cooking this recipe and, as always, if you have any comments or questions just use the comments section below.

Daisy…I’ll be around tomorrow to try yours…????

Thanks for reading and until next time…Steve

 

 

8. Printable recipe