The search for the best ever brownies - do they exist? Can we bake them? Part 1

I'm entitling this post 'Part 1' because I am 99% sure that Bella and I will return to brownies at some point on this blog. They are a food close to our hearts. I've made a lot of brownies in my time, while I was at uni I had a habit of vastly under cooking them so they tasted slightly eggy and frightened my housemate, but now I'm trying to be a more mature baker.

This is a foolproof recipe from our good friends at the BBC.

This was taken at work, nice change of scene for you.

Ingredients (adapted from this BBC recipe):

185g unsalted butter
185g dark chocolate
85g plain flour
40g cocoa powder
50g white chocolate
50g milk chocolate (I tend to just use 100g white chocolate, depends what you have in)
3 large eggs
275g golden caster sugar (this is a lot of sugar, I normally use a bit less)

Method:

1. Cut 185g unsalted butter into smallish cubes and tip into a medium bowl. Break 185g dark chocolate into small pieces and drop into the bowl. Put the bowl in the microwave for 2 minutes on High, taking it out every 20 seconds to give it a quick stir. Leave the melted mixture to cool to room temperature.

Because who doesn't want to look at melted chocolate?

2. While you wait for the chocolate to cool, preheat the oven to fan 160°C/conventional 180°C. Using a shallow 20cm square tin, cut out a square of non-stick baking parchment to line the base.

For some strange reason I decided to use two circular cake tins, but it worked out fine.

3. Now tip 85g plain flour and 40g cocoa powder into a sieve held over a medium bowl, and tap and shake the sieve so they run through together and you get rid of any lumps.

4. Chop 50g white chocolate and 50g milk chocolate into chunks.

It is worth doing these stages before moving on to whisking so that the melted chocolate gets a chance to cool, otherwise you'll get chocolatey scrambled eggs (I presume).

5. Break 3 large eggs into a large bowl and tip in 275g golden caster sugar. With an electric mixer on maximum speed, whisk the eggs and sugar until they look thick and creamy, like a milk shake. This can take 3-8 minutes, depending on how powerful your mixer is, so don’t lose heart. You’ll know it’s ready when the mixture becomes really pale and about double its original volume. Another check is to turn off the mixer, lift out the beaters and wiggle them from side to side. If the mixture that runs off the beaters leaves a trail on the surface of the mixture in the bowl for a second or two, you’re there.

It was surprisingly tricky to achieve this action shot.

6. Pour the cooled chocolate mixture over the eggy mousse, then gently fold together with a rubber spatula. Plunge the spatula in at one side, take it underneath and bring it up the opposite side and in again at the middle. Continue going under and over in a figure of eight, moving the bowl round after each folding so you can get at it from all sides, until the two mixtures are one and the colour is a mottled dark brown. The idea is to marry them without knocking out the air, so be as gentle and slow as you like – you don’t want to undo all the work you did in step 5.

7. Hold the sieve over the bowl of eggy chocolate mixture and resift the cocoa and flour mixture to cover the top evenly. Gently fold in this powder using the same figure of eight action as before. The mixture will look dry and dusty at first, and a bit unpromising, but if you keep going very gently and patiently, it will end up looking fudgy. Stop just before you feel you should, as you don’t want to overdo this mixing. Finally, stir in the white and milk chocolate chunks until they’re dotted throughout.

8. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and level it. Put in the oven and set your timer for 25 minutes. When the buzzer goes, open the oven, pull the shelf out a bit and gently shake the tin. If the brownie wobbles in the middle, it’s not quite done, so slide it back in and bake for another 5 minutes until the top has a shiny, papery crust and the sides are just beginning to come away from the tin. Take out of the oven.

Be careful not to overcook the brownie, it's best to be a little undercooked at first - it will harden as it cools.

8. Leave the whole thing in the tin until completely cold (it's hard I know) and then enjoy!

I gave these brownies to a range of friends and family. Bella made positive noises and my colleague Barney said they were "good". I think this is enough praise to encourage you to make your own.

Alice