There is no shortage of brownie recipes which include “best ever” in the title. I won’t make such a claim here, I’ll just say that this is my personal favourite, adapted from Chocolat by Eric Lanlard (you know the recipes are good when the “e” is excluded). With a heart-stopping amount of chocolate, these need little more than a good cup of coffee on the side, though nobody will fault you if you add a scoop or three of vanilla ice cream.

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    A few tips for making a good batch – and you can thank me for all my hours of research:

    1. Use good quality chocolate. If you want delicious results, you have to put in delicious products. The same goes for the cocoa you use.
    2. Don’t over-mix, or you could end up with tough brownies. Mix till ingredients are just combined.
    3. Don’t over-bake. You don’t want to cook out all the gooey fudgy goodness.

    My Favourite Chocolate Brownies

    Adapted from Chocolat by Eric Lanlard

    Makes 16 squares

    Ingredients

    • 200 g good quality dark chocolate
    • 140 g butter
    • 1 tsp vanilla extract
    • 3/4 cup granulated sugar
    • 3 eggs, lightly beaten
    • 2/3 cup flour
    • 3 tbsp cocoa powder
    • 1 tsp salt
    • 2/3 cup dark chocolate chips

    Method

    1. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C and grease and line a 20cm square baking tin.
    2. Melt the chocolate and butter in the microwave.
    3. Stir in the vanilla extract and sugar, and leave to cool for a few minutes.
    4. Whisk in the eggs by hand.
    5. Sift together the flour, cocoa powder and salt and fold into the mixture.
    6. Pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake for 25 about 20 minutes, till the edges are set but the centre is still slightly wobbly.
    7. Allow to cool completely in the tin, the cut into squares and serve.