Less guilty Brownies 5.0

I’ve tried so many brownies recipes these past few months that I’ve lost count so I’m calling this Brownies 5.0. It uses dark chocolate and brown sugar, so I’m consoling myself that it’s a less guilty indulgence!

They all claim to be the easiest, fudgiest and most delicious, with small variables such as with or without baking powder, with or without chocolate (yes, you can make brownies without using actual chocolate), less butter, more eggs, etc.

This is the most recent one that I’ve tried. I will probably try other future versions based on this as a benchmark. It ticks all the boxes as it’s easy to make, rich, less sweet and all the piranhas at home approve of it.

Feel free to add chocolate chips, almonds or walnuts to give more oomph to your brownies.

Ingredients

100g dark chocolate (you can add about 30g to 50g milk chocolate for a sweeter finish. The original recipe called for 300g milk chocolate)

180g unsalted butter

3 large eggs

1 cup brown sugar (use half white/half brown sugar if you prefer sweeter, cut sugar to half cup if you are using all milk chocolate)

105g all purpose flour

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

60g cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon instant coffee powder

1/2 teaspoon salt (if your butter is salted, omit this)

Method

Heat up oven to 175 degrees C.

Melt butter and chocolate (place ingredients in a bowl over a container of hot water). By liquifying this, you will end up with a nice crusty top for the brownies.

In a separate bowl, whisk eggs and sugar until fluffy, and then add vanilla extract. Fold in melted butter and chocolate.

Sift flour into another bowl, and mix together with cocoa powder, salt and coffee.

Fold dry ingredients into butter and egg mixture, and combine them well. Don’t whisk too much as you might up with a cake rather than brownies as you get more air into the batter.

Pour everything into 8x8in (20x20cm) tray and bake for about 25 minutes to 30mins, depending on your oven. Use a cake tester ‘needle” (baking instrument, I don’t know the proper name) or a toothpick and poke in the centre to see if it is cooked in the middle. If it is still wet then continue baking. It’s fine if there are still some crumbs sticking to it after 27 minutes, but it’s not too wet. Otherwise leave it for just another 3mins, depending on the heat of your oven, then turn off heat and leave to cool inside.

At this point you should switch off the heat as it will still continue to cook in the leftover heat. For brownies (and cheesecake), it’s always best to underbake rather than end up with a dry product.

Let it cool down fully on a rack before cutting otherwise it will crumble. Serve with vanilla ice cream or enjoy the lovely rich, chocolatey brownie on its own.

Every time I do this, I find minute differences, and the best results I find, despite what the recipe sites say about fluffing up the eggs and sugar, or creaming the butter, is to whisk everything by hand, and not overdoing the folding.

Good luck!