My moreish, gooey, sweet, chocolate brownies
Chocolate brownies are my ultimate comfort food, my usual coffee shop order and my most asked for recipe. A classic chocolate brownie will be unhealthy, rich and ridiculously sweet.
To have a gooey brownie, but without raw cake mixture, you need to use both chocolate and cocoa powder, instead of just cocoa powder.
My recipe took a long time to get right, I've tried about 8 different recipes, taken out things and added things, and after a lot of trial and error, I've come up with my own that I think is perfect!
Ingredients
Serves 9 (if you love brownies), or 12 (if brownies are okay but not your favourite)
Method
Hints and tips for this recipe
Chocolate brownies are my ultimate comfort food, my usual coffee shop order and my most asked for recipe. A classic chocolate brownie will be unhealthy, rich and ridiculously sweet.
To have a gooey brownie, but without raw cake mixture, you need to use both chocolate and cocoa powder, instead of just cocoa powder.
My recipe took a long time to get right, I've tried about 8 different recipes, taken out things and added things, and after a lot of trial and error, I've come up with my own that I think is perfect!
Ingredients
Serves 9 (if you love brownies), or 12 (if brownies are okay but not your favourite)
- 120g butter (I use Aldi, 'Perfect for cakes' - which is basically Stork!)
- 150g plain flour
- 2 tbsp cocoa powder
- 300g caster sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste (1/2 tsp if using extract)
- 110g dark, cooking chocolate, broken into pieces
- 100g white chocolate chips
- 30g milk chocolate chips
Method
- Preheat the oven 180c fan/gas mark 4. Grease and line a 7 inch square tin.
- Put the dark chocolate, butter and vanilla paste in a pan over a low heat, until melted.
- Allow the chocolate mixture to cool a little and add the sugar, mix until well combined.
- In a separate bowl, sift the flour and cocoa and add the all of the chocolate chips.
- Add the melted chocolate mixture to the flour and mix until combined (don't worry if it's not completely combined, as once you add the egg, it will mix more easily).
- Add the eggs, one at a time and mix well, until all the ingredients are completely combined.
- Pour the mixture into the tin, and smooth with the back of your mixing spoon.
- Put in the oven for 40 minutes, or until a skewer comes out almost clean.
- Leave in the tin to cool down, and portion in the tin (this should stop the crunchy top on the brownie breaking into loads of pieces).
(left-right, clockwise, Melted chocolate & butter, sugar and chocolate, adding chocolate to the flour, tall mixed together)
(YUM. The finished product.)
Hints and tips for this recipe
- Store chocolate chips in the fridge, this means when adding to a warm mixture, they will stay whole and won't start melting into the mix.
- Caster sugar is essential for this - granulated won't cook as well and will leave you with a gritty texture.
- This mixture, believe it or not, is easier to do by hand, but if you do decide to use a mixer, I find the dough hook works better than the whisks for such a dense mixture.
- Heat a sharp knife with boiling water and then dry, the cut the brownies, this should stop the mixture sticking as much to the knife.
Ingredients, prices and where to buy them
I LOVE ALDI!
As a keen cook and baker, being able to buy all the same ingredients, at such a cheaper price has meant I can do what I love more often (my waistline has suffered...)
Here's a few of the items I picked up at Aldi...
- Plain flour - £0.45 (1.5kg)
- Chocolate chips - £0.59 (100g, currently on offer from £0.69)
- Cooking chocolate - £0.85 (150g)
- Caster sugar - £0.95 (1kg)
- Butter - £0.39 (250g Greenvale Perfect for Baking)
- Eggs - £0.89 (six, large, free-range)
- Vanilla extract - £0.98 (Dr Oteker, 35ml)
Other ingredients
Here's the cheapest I've found the other ingredients;
- Vanilla bean paste - £2.75 (Dr Oteker, 100ml, Morrisons)
- Cocoa Powder - £1.99 (250g, Tesco's Own, Tesco) or £1.09 (Dr Oteker, 2x25g fine dark cocoa powder sachets, Morrisons)