Recipe: Gooey, Chewy Chocolate Brownies

Some days, no matter how “good” you are being, you just need chocolate! And it doesn’t get much better than a proper chocolate brownie, does it?!

I’ve spent a while perfecting this recipe and I think I’ve just about got it right. You see, I’m quite picky when it comes to brownies, because, in my opinion, they have to be gooey in the middle, but the edges need to be nicely chewy, without being dry and crusty. It’s a really delicate balance and one that I had to make work before I posted this recipe.

These brownies also don’t use real chocolate, only cocoa powder, purely because I wanted it to be a recipe that you can make when the urge to bake comes over you at home. Most people who bake have cocoa powder at home, but don’t necessarily have bars of dark chocolate kicking around, so I used cocoa powder and you really can’t tell the difference!

Hope you enjoy!

What You Need:

• Large Saucepan
• Large Glass Mixing Bowl
• Square Tin (approx 20cmx20cm)
• 150g Butter
• 275g Granulated sugar
• 2 Large Eggs
• 80g Cocoa Powder
• 65g Plain Flour
• 65g Chocolate Chips
• 5ml Vanilla Extract
• Pinch of salt.

How To Do It: 

1. Line your tin with greaseproof paper and preheat the oven to 170’C.
2. Place the butter, sugar and coca powder in a large mixing bowl. Boil a half-filled pan of water and place the bowl on the top of the simmering pan.
3. Allow the butter to melt and stir until all mixed and warm. It will feel gritty, don’t worry about this!
   
4. Take off the heat once all the butter has melted and all is mixed through. Allow to cool for 5 to 10 mins, just so it isn’t really really hot.
5. Crack the eggs in one by one and mix well.
6. Add the flour and mix until smooth. This mixing is very important to stop the fat separating in the oven so make sure you give it a really good thorough mix.
7. Add the chocolate chips, mix through and pour brownie batter into the tin.
8. Place in the oven for 25 minutes and then check the bake with a skewer – it should come out mostly clean with maybe a few crumbs. I ended up giving mine a few minutes extra in the oven at this point but best to check than overcook them or they won’t be gooey.
9. Once the skewer comes out almost clean, take the tin out of the oven and allow to cool for half an hour or so. The temptation is real to just dive in, but they won’t be set and you’ll just be eating hot, baked, slightly set brownie mix….not good!
10. Once cooled (or as near as you can wait for!) use the edges of the greaseproof paper to pull the brownie out of the tin. Place on a chopping board and slice. I sliced mine into 8 but you might prefer 16.
11. Enjoy!