Perfect chocolate brownies
This is our most perfect chocolate brownie recipe. It's everything you want in a brownie – fudgy, dark and chocolatey. Serve these brownies warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and you'll understand what happiness is.
Ingredients
- 225g/8oz butter (preferably unsalted)
- 450g/1lb caster sugar
- 140g/5oz dark chocolate, broken into pieces
- 5 free-range medium eggs
- 110g/4oz plain flour
- 55g/2oz cocoa powder
Method
Heat the oven to 190C/170C Fan/Gas 5. Line a 20x30cm/8x12in baking tin with baking paper.
Gently melt the butter and the sugar together in a large pan. Once melted, take off the heat and add the chocolate. Stir until melted.
Beat in the eggs, then stir in the flour and the cocoa powder.
Pour the brownie batter into the prepared tin and bake for 30–35 minutes, or until the top of the brownie is just firm but there is still a gentle wobble in the middle.
Take out of the oven and leave to cool in the tin. Cut the brownies into 5cm/2in squares when only just warm, or completely cool.
Recipe Tips
The secret to making the best, fudgy, squidgy brownie is not to overbake them. They should wobble in the centre when you take them out. The residual heat will continue to cook them for a few minutes and they'll set up on cooling. Too firm and they will be more cakey than fudgy.
If you want fudgy brownies it’s also important to have a higher ratio of fat to flour/cocoa powder. The fat usually comes from butter or oil and, to a lesser extent, melted chocolate. Using butter instead of oil also helps achieve a softer fudgy finish, with oil making them more chewy. If you prefer your brownies more cakey, try a recipe containing a bit more flour.
For the ultimate chocolate hit without being too heavy, you need a good balance of cocoa powder and melted chocolate. Using all chocolate can make brownies quite dense and extremely rich, which may well be your thing, in which case try this rich brownie recipe. If you don't have any bars of plain chocolate on hand you can make an easy cocoa powder brownie, too.
You can easily make these brownies gluten-free by swapping in gluten-free flour.
If you like, jazz up this recipe by adding a handful of chopped nuts, chocolate chips, white chocolate chunks or a mix. Add these after the addition of the eggs, when the batter is somewhat cooler and will not melt the chocolate straight away.
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