As much as I love trying to bake new things, I still love going back to some old favourites. This particular favourite is something I have made since I was 18, living in a rickety house in the Mumbles in Swansea with my two cousins. The recipe is based on Antony Worrall Thompson’s Triple Chocolate Brownies found on BBC Good Food Website – Triple Chocolate Brownies.

Recipe
275g/10oz plain (dark) chocolate (70% cocoa solids)
275g/10oz unsalted butter
85g/3oz pecans
85g/3oz milk chocolate
85g/3oz white chocolate
175g/6oz plain flour
1tsp baking powder
4 large eggs
1tsp vanilla essence
325g/12oz caster sugar

• I start by placing a bowl over a pan of water over the heat (make sure the bottom of the bowl doesn’t touch the water.  I break up my dark chocolate into pieces (I used 300g of chocolate – why waste any!?) and add to the bowl to melt along with the butter which I chop up into small cubes.

                                      

• Once the chocolate and butter melted and I had stirred it through to combine, I removed the bowl from the heat (please be wary doing this, the bowl will be hot!) and added the sugar to the chocolate and stirred to combine.

                                       

• Next I lightly whisked the eggs in a jug and added the vanilla essence to the eggs.

                                       

• I then added the eggs to the mixture in installments and made sure to mix well after each addition (the mixture might start to separate whilst you’re doing this but don’t panic – it just involves a little elbow grease and continuous mixing!).  After this I then lined a tin with greaseproof paper which I lightly greased with some butter and as I have a fan oven I preheated the oven to 150C (the original method says 170C).

                                       

• In a separate bowl, sift together the flour and baking powder and then add this to the mixture in installments.  Gently fold the flour into the mixture well after each addition.

                                       

• Once all the flour has been folded into the mixture, chop up the white chocolate and milk chocolate roughly into different sized chunks (I used 100g of each – waste not want not!) and then add to the mixture and carefully fold them in.  You can add nuts such as pecans like the recipe suggests but I tend to leave them out unless it’s requested.

• With the help of a spatula, I pour my mixture into the greased tin and then using the spatula I attempt to even out the mixture in the tin.

• I the put the tin in the oven and leave it to bake for about 20 – 25 minutes.  You want to slightly undercook the brownies so that when you take it out, the top is firm but the inside should feel soft.  The residual heat from the tin will help gently cook the rest of the brownie without the use of the oven and give you a nice fudgy/gooey brownie.

• Leave the brownies aside while they cool and be sure not to cut into them straight away otherwise it will definitely fall apart.
• Serve with a good helping of vanilla ice cream or double cream – YUM.

What brownie recipe do you use?  Does it have lots of chocolate in it or do you use healthy ingredients like avocado?  Do you put in nuts?  Let me know!  As you can see, there is no photo of me enjoying a midnight brownie as I made these quite late!

Until next time! x