Devilish Chocolate Brownies

We recently received a wonderful book from the lovely folk at the Happy Egg Company. Totally Chocolate by Eric Lanlard includes 60 recipes using an ingredient he describes as the ‘food of the gods’. His passion for chocolate is evident with pages of indulgent chocolate drinks, muffins, mousses, gateaux and petit fours. Not to mention elaborate creations for special occasions.

Thanks to four-year-old POD the recipe book has already been christened with chocolate chunks, flour and a Happy Egg!

But oh my word, today we ate the best chocolate brownies we have ever tasted. We couldn’t wait until they were cool so we took Eric’s advice and didn’t overcook them but we ate them warm. They melted in our mouths.

We absolutely had to share this recipe which takes 10 minutes to prepare. Perhaps allow a little longer if you’re making your brownies with a small person. The cooking time is 30 minutes and you’ll end up with around 16 brownies.

Ingredients 

200g (7oz) dark chocolate, roughly chopped
150g (5oz) unsalted butter plus a little for greasing
2 tsp vanilla extract
150g (5oz) golden caster sugar
3 Happy Eggs, beaten
75g (3oz) plain flour
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp salt
100g (3½oz) dark chocolate chips

Method

Preheat the oven to 180ºC (fan 160ºC/350ºF/gas mark 4). Grease a 19cm (7½) square shallow baking tin and line the base with baking paper – we used butter instead.

Melt the chopped chocolate, butter and vanilla together in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water, making sure the surface of the water does not touch the bowl.

Remove from the heat and stir in the sugar, then leave to cool for a few minutes. Beat the eggs, then stir in the flour, cocoa and salt and fold in until the mixture is smooth and glossy. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and level the top. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes, or until the top starts to crack but the centre remains gooey. Turn off the heat and leave the brownies inside for a further 5 minutes before removing. Leave them to cool completely in the tin. Or wait 10 minutes or so and try a warm one!

Thank you to the Happy Egg Company for providing us with one of the best recipe books ever #HappyEggTasteMakers