My favourite brownie recipe

This is another baking post. I seem to be on a roll!

Anyone who has tasted my brownies has hailed me Brownie Queen. My secret is Nigel Slater's Very Good Brownie Recipe. It is by far the best brownie recipe I have ever made and tasted. The result is crumbly, fudgy, rich and ultra-moreish brownie. I don't bother trying other recipes since finding this, I just don't think it gets better than this.



Nigel Slater's Very Good Brownies

Ingredients
300g/1 ⅓ cups golden caster sugar
250g/9oz unsalted butter
250g/9oz chocolate (at least 70% cocoa solids)
3 large eggs plus 1 extra yolk
60g/⅓ cup cocoa powder
60g/⅓ cup plain flour
½ tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt

How-to
1. Pre-heat the oven to 180C/355F. Grease and line a 9 x 9" baking tray with baking parchment.

2. Chop 50g of the chocolate into small, gravel-sized chunks and set aside. Break the remaining 200g of chocolate into pieces and put rest in a bowl suspended over a pan of simmering water. As soon as the chocolate as melted, remove it from the heat.

3. Cream the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy. It's best to use a food mixer/hand whisk for this.

4. In a small bowl or cup, lightly beat together the eggs then slowly add to the butter and sugar, with the food mixer still running.

5. Sift together the flour, cocoa and baking powder and mix in a pinch of salt. Remove the bowl from the mixer to the work surface, then mix in the melted and the chopped chocolate with a large metal spoon. Lastly, fold in the flour and cocoa, gently and firmly, without knocking any of the air out.

6. Scrape the mixture into the prepared cake tin, smooth the top and bake for 30 minutes. The top will have risen slightly and the cake will appear slightly softer in the middle than around the edges. Pierce the centre of the cake with a toothpick - it should come out sticky, but not with lots of raw mixture attached to it. The middle should be soft but not uncooked and will solidify when cooled.

7. At this stage, take the tray out of the oven. Cool for 30 minutes in the tin before taking out to cool on a wire rack. When fully cooled, cut into 12, delicious brownies.