Look at me, declaring these to be the ULTIMATE chewy chocolate brownies. I’m pretty sure the ‘brazenly titled recipe post’ is a rite of passage for food bloggers so it was about time, really…
Heh, I’m joking, but this recipe really has been a loooong time in the making. Despite having a LOT of cakes & desserts on this blog, brownies haven’t made an appearance until now.
That’s not because I don’t love ’em. In fact, it’s precisely because I love fudgy, chewy chocolate brownies SO much that I just couldn’t settle for posting a mediocre recipe.
Before I get to what makes this recipe so perfect, we need to talk brownie preferences. For me, they should be rich, dense and chewy. Not light & fluffy, and certainly not so over-sweet you can hardly taste the chocolate.
I say ‘preference’, because I’m trying to be polite but seriously guys, this is how they’re meant to be!!
(I actually googled the dictionary definition of ‘brownie’ to try to prove my point but they all say something woefully inadequate like “a rich chocolate cake with nuts”. Pssh. No nuts here, FYI. Also, wikipedia claims that brownies “may be either fudgy or cakey” but that is a straight up LIE.)
Aaand there you have a weird little insight into my internet browsing habits. I have strong feelings about chocolate brownies, OK??
So, now that we’ve established that rich, dense and fudgy is what we’re going for, let’s talk about the recipe I’ve been attempting to get right for the entirety of time this blog has existed (which is over 2 years now, whaaaat).
The key here is switching some of the butter for vegetable oil. Whilst butter has a better flavour, unlike oil it contains trapped air and water. This is perfect for creating the little air pockets you want in croissants or sponge cakes, but not ideal for brownies.
I’ve tried so many chocolate sponges masquerading as brownies, and more than a few recipes that don’t deserve to have ‘chocolate’ in their name.
But, I finally got there! I pretty much did a happy dance in my kitchen when I tasted these brownies.
They’re thick, gooey and super rich with a full-on chocolate flavour. Everything the perfect chocolate brownie should be (see rant above).
Ingredients
- 30g cocoa powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 115ml boiling water
- 60g dark chocolate, broken into small pieces
- 45g butter, melted
- 200ml veg oil
- 2 eggs
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 325g sugar
- 175g flour, sifted
- 100g choc chips (dark or milk)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180°c. Line a 9 inch square brownie tin with greaseproof paper.
- In a large bowl, add the cocoa powder, salt and boiling water and whisk until no lumps remain. Add the dark chocolate and continue whisking until melted.
- Whisk in the butter and oil until incorporated. Add the eggs, yolk, vanilla extract and sugar and whisk to combine.
- Fold the flour into the wet ingredients and then add the choc chips.
- Pour batter into the prepared baking tin and bake for 25-30 mins until the edges are fully baked and the middle is still slightly moist.
- Leave to cool in the tin for at least an hour before removing to cool on a wire rack. Allow to cool fully before slicing into 16 squares.
I totally hear you on the weird search history, a friend asked me to make brownies for their wedding reception earlier this summer and I did a lot of research! The perfect brownie is no where near as straight forward as people would think! I ended up with one using Nutella and finding a supermarket own-brand version worked even better. The things you never knew we’d find when we started blogging!
Ha, very true! Yeah I tried SO many recipes before I was happy. Nutella sounds like a good shout though, I can imagine that would work well in terms of flavour & texture.
Hello! I’m interested in making this but I am converting your eights to our boring old US measurements. 😀
I wanted to ask about the dark chocolate. Are you referring to unsweetened baker’s chocolate, or a dark chocolate candy bar? The sweetness levels are of course a little different! 🙂
Thanks!
Hi Laura, this problem always seems to crop up when switching between US and UK recipes using chocolate!
The dark chocolate I use is 70% cocoa (usually Lindt). I’m not sure exactly how that matches to what’s available in the US but I think a dark chocolate candy bar would probably be closer. You could also try using unsweetened chocolate and increase the sugar quantity but you’d have to experiment a little to get the right amount.
Hope that helps! 🙂
Thank you!
Hi! Is this brownie like really chewy? Because i have tried so many recipes that claim their brownies are chewy and fudgy. But when i make them. They are not really chewy but more of like a soft chew
Hi Rachel, they’re definitely more fudgy/chewy than cakey but they are still soft. If you’re looking for something really chewy you might be better trying something firmer like a chocolate cookie. Hope that helps!