Best Ever Chocolate brownies recipe - makes 16
Whatabout ye folks, it's Lee here. I don't usually share recipes on this blog, other than the one recipe I did share of my family's famous chocolate ice-cream HERE. However, once you make these brownies, I can guarantee you that you will forgive me for veering away from my normal crafting posts. Now, when you see the photos you'll probably wonder what the other blog name is about. I haven't stolen these photos from someone else, teehee. These are my photos. This is just another blog that I have. It may never see the light of day with the public. It's probably just going to be a family recipe archive for my ones so they have all our family recipes in one place, you know.....in case I pop me clogs, lol.
A little background on the recipe, apparently the original recipe for these was shared on Reddit as the best ever brownies recipe and when I found the recipe, it was shared by Jemma over at Cupcake Jemma on YouTube. Now, when I made them, I didn't think they were the best brownies ever, lol. I found they were too sweet, a bit dry and the chocolate was hidden by the excessive sugar so I have modified the recipe with less sugar. However, even with the sugar adjustment, I wasn't totally happy with the flavour and texture so I tinkered around with the recipe over a few weeks (so many brownies were made, teehee) and I modified the original recipe in a few extra places and also included extra inclusions so, now I believe this recipe is the best chocolate brownie recipe ever. I've included loads of photos, some video footage, a detailed recipe with instructions, a good few tips and even some approximate nutritional values too, so if you do make these, please give this post a good read. I haven't done a full video recipe per say, but I have added a few wee video clips below just showing some of the important steps. And please leave me a comment and tell me what you think or if you have any questions, you can ask in the comments section or contact me through the blogs contact form at the top right-hand side of my blog and I will gladly email you any additional information you need.
THINGS YOU'LL NEED
A mixer, either a stand mixer or electric hand beaters. I do not recommend doing this recipe with just a hand whisk as your arms will be dead trying to inflate the sugar/egg mixture. If you have a stand mixer definitely use it as it will whip your eggs and sugar in no time. Also, a saucepan for browning your butter. You'll want a 9x13 inch (23x33cm) baking pan with at least a 1 inch depth and parchment paper to line the pan. Leave an overhang of parchment paper so the brownies are easy to lift out. I found that a 9x13 inch (23x33cm) tin was perfect for this recipe. You will also want at least a 1 inch depth as these brownies are thick. If your pan is a different size, it will change the cook time, thickness of brownies, texture etc. So do try and get the correct sized tin as I personally know from experience that using a different sized tin changes the brownies. Also, the usual suspects are needed like a spatula, bowl, scales and a sieve.
BIG TIP A. You can make these the day before (or even more) you need them. The flavour deepens and they taste so much better the next day. I never really believed it when recipes said that, but truly these taste incredible the day after they are made and have time to mature and develop a richer, chocolate flavour. They are tasty the day they are made too, but 10 times better the next day. And to be completely honest....a 4 day old brownie tastes EVEN BETTER. They also freeze incredibly well too. I just store them, really well wrapped and at room temperature. But if you prefer a firmer brownie, keep them in the fridge.
TIP B. When browning your butter, I suggest using a light coloured pot for this as you need to be able to see when the butter changes colour and is browning. This is much more difficult to gauge in a dark based pot and may lead to burning your butter too far. So, definitely a stainless steal or lighter colour based pot is my preferred vessel for browning butter. However, do not go out and buy a lighter based pot just for this recipe. But if you have one, do use it. I must confess, I did buy a stainless steal pot for this very reason but I also use it in all my confectionery makes as a lighter based pot is perfect for making caramel, toffee etc., too. It's now become my most used pan in the kitchen, lol.
TIP C. I use Callebaut 811 dark chocolate which is 54% cocoa solids. This is proper chocolate, not the cheap chocolate chips from the baking aisle that have more oil and sugar than actual chocolate. It comes in callets form which is a similar shape to flat chocolate chips. If you are using a chocolate bar, I suggest you chop the chocolate up into pieces that would be a similar size to chocolate chips. You can also change up your brownie inclusions too. So change the nuts you add or even add white chocolate chips to the mix. The world is your brownie oyster, lol. I know chocolate is very expensive at the moment but honestly, the better quality chocolate you use, the better the flavour of brownie. This is all about the chocolate so splurge for the best chocolate you can afford.
TIP D. If you are adding pecans (or whichever nut you prefer), I suggest breaking them up by hand if possibly. It's easy to do this with pecan and walnuts but may be impossible with firmer nuts. My reason for breaking them by hand rather than chopping with a knife is because I like a variation in size of nut pieces throughout my brownies. I also find if I chop the nuts with a knife, I tend to get a lot of "nut dust", if that's even a proper term, lol. I don't want to add the "nut dust" to my brownies as it could potentially change the texture by absorbing extra moisture from the brownies. So, I simply break my pecans into different sized pieces by hand. I realise that this might not be possible for some people or it's just plain nuts (ahhhhh, get it?) to break them up by hand rather than chopping them with a knife, so I will leave this tip up to you as to whether you do it or not.
OVEN FAN ASSISTED @ 170°c - cook time 25 mins Prep time approx 20-30 mins
INGREDIENTS
250g Salted Butter - to be browned
100g Cocoa Powder
270g TOTAL Good Quality Dark Chocolate (I use 811 Callebaut callets 54%) This is divided into 150g portion & 120g portion. The 150g portion will be melted with the other ingredients. The 120g portion is added later as the brownie inclusions. If you are using chocolate bars, chop it up into pieces roughly the size of chocolate chips/callets.
2 tsp instant coffee
1/2 tsp Salt (I use sea salt. If you are using table salt, use half this amount)
250g Caster Sugar
100g Light Brown Sugar
1 tbsp Vanilla
4 large Eggs - room temperature
120g Plain Flour
100g roughly broken up or chopped Pecans or nuts of your choice (plus your 120g chocolate from above)
1. Pre-heat your oven, fan assisted to 170c. In a saucepan on med/high heat, add your butter and brown it really well (see video below). This can take up to 10 mins. The butter will melt and get to the stage where it stops sputtering and will start to smell nutty. The butter will also have turned a rich brown colour and you'll also see dark specks on the bottom of your pan....this is correct. You may wish to add a splatter guard to your pot as the butter may sputter and spit whilst it's melting and browning. Please watch this carefully as you don't want to burn the butter too much as it will taste acrid and burnt. A deep, rich brown colour with dark specks is perfect.
2. Meanwhile, whilst the butter is browning, in a bowl, add the cocoa powder, 150g dark chocolate, instant coffee, salt & vanilla. Please don't worry about your brownies tasting like coffee. You won't taste it at all. The coffee enhances and enriches the chocolate flavour, so please don't leave it out.
3. Once the butter is browned, immediately pour the boiling brown butter over the above ingredients from part 2, making sure you scrape all the brown bits at the bottom of the pan into the bowl & give it a good mix to allow the chocolate to melt. The hot butter will also bloom the cocoa powder giving it a much more enhanced chocolate flavour. Set aside to cool slightly whilst you get the other ingredients ready.
4. Crack the room temperature eggs into the bowl of your stand mixer along with the balloon whisk attachment (see video below). Add both sugars & whisk on med-high for approximately 8 mins. The mixture should be increased in volume, super thick & lighter looking in colour. When you dip the whisk into the batter and remove it, the mixer should ribbon on top of the batter.
5. Once the sugar/egg mixture is ready, remove the bowl from the mixer and pour in your now slightly cooled, melted butter/chocolate mix to the bowl. Using a spatula, gently fold this mixture together until almost completely one colour. Don't overmix as you may deflate all the air you added to the eggs. It will get more mixing in the next step.
6. Place a sieve over the bowl and sieve the flour into the batter. Gently fold in the flour by hand using a spatula. Just before the flour is completely incorporated, add the extra 120g of chocolate & chopped nuts. Give everything a good mix to combine but don't over mix. Just ensure the flour is well incorporated and the inclusions are well distributed throughout the batter.
7. Place parchment paper into your pan with a little overhang so you can use it as handles to remove the brownies later. You may need to rub a bit of butter into the pan first so the parchment sticks to it well. Pour and spread out the brownie batter evenly into the 9x13" tin. Use a pan that has at least an inch in height on the sides. The batter doesn't rise a lot, but it still does puff up a little so you want adequate height to the sides of your pan. Bake @ 170°c fan assisted for 25 mins exactly.
8. Remove from the oven and cool on a wire/cooling rack. They can be cooled for 30-40 mins & then eaten slightly warm or you can place them in the fridge. I actually keep them at room temperature as I prefer the texture. They are a bit more solid if kept in the fridge but you can also give it 20 secs in the microwave if needed. Perfect with a strong cup of black coffee.
Now, I am not a nutritionist, but I do have 3 siblings and 1 niece with Type 1 diabetes. So, I did my very best to calculate the carbohydrates and sugars in these brownies along with the calories. I cut the tray of brownies into 16 equal portions so roughly each brownie was between 85-95g each. Here are the numbers that I came up with, but as I said, I am not a professional or nutritionist so please take these numbers as a guide. I am not responsible for anyone doing too much/too little insulin. How I worked these figures out was by adding up all the carbs/sugars/calories of each individual ingredient. But if you use different ingredients than me, particularly when it comes to the brownies inclusions, your figures will be different to mine. These are simply my estimation to make things easier for my family to work out their insulin intake.
Calories
Total calories per entire tray 6580.3kcal
Calories per 1 x brownie (tray divided into 16) 411.26kcal
Carbohydrates
Total carbohydrates per entire tray 584.8g
carbohydrates per 1 x brownie 36.55g
Of which sugars
Total brownie tray sugars 479.95g
Sugars per 1 x brownie 29.99g
Beginning the browning of the butter. I suggest using a light coloured pot for this as you need to be able to see when the butter changes colour and is browning. This is much more difficult in a dark coloured pot and may lead to burning your butter too far. So, definitely a stainless steal or lighter coloured pot is my preferred vessel for browning butter.
A little video of whipping the sugars and eggs together and the ideal texture you need for these brownies. There is no leavening (ie, baking powder/bicarb of soda) in this recipe so the brownies rely on all the air that is whipped into the sugar and eggs for its leavening.
And that's it from me folks. I hope you make these and tell me what you think. Did you mind me sharing a recipe with you instead of a crafting project? Would you like to see more recipes? I'd love to know.
Toodles Noodles.....Lee aka Crafty Loops xx
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Helloooooo! Anybody out there??!! Hey....there you are! Thanks for leaving a comment and stopping by my Blog. Lee x