Luxury Chocolate Brownie

Source: Cocoandme

Ingredients:
230g Butter, roughly cubed
300g Sugar (Granulated or Castor)
200g Whole eggs (approximately four) whisked up
230g Dark Chocolate - in small pellet form or chopped finely so it melts quickly
140g Flour
40g Cocoa Powder
200g of nuts of your choice (pistachio, walnuts, hazelnuts, pecans - You can use just one type or use all four types like I do. They add different crunchy textures to every fudgy bite, which makes the brownie interesting til the last bite)

20cm square baking tin
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Prepare:

a. Butter the baking tin. Then line the bottom & the sides with baking paper.

b. Sift together the flour & the cocoa powder.

c. Have the chocolates ready in a large mixing bowl.

d. Leave aside some nuts to decorate the surface of the brownies with (in my opinion, walnuts look best).

e. Preheat oven to 180 degrees.

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Method:

1. Melt the butter completely in a large pot.
2. Add the sugar. Dissolve.
3. Pour the egg mixture & mix well with a whisk (make sure the hot butter doesn’t cook the egg in to an omlette).
4. Pour the hot mixture over the chocolates in a bowl. Mix thoroughly & make sure all the chocolates have dissolved (if you still have lumps of chocolates left, zap it at 10 second intervals in the microwave until it melts).
5. Spatula in the flour & the cocoa powder. Mix until no traces of flour can be seen.
6. Mix in the nuts. (Make sure you leave some aside for decorating the top with).
7. Pour the mixture in to the prepared tin.
8. Evenly decorate some more nuts on the top surface. (Make sure each slice would have a decorative nut)
9. Bake in the oven (that has been pre-heated at 180 degrees) for 25 - 30 minutes. It’s cooked when the edges have gone slightly dry, the top is shiny & has cracked. The centre of the brownie shoudn’t be wobbly when shook. Remember: the toothpick method won’t work on this fudgy brownie!
10. Leave aside to cool. Don’t cut until they’ve reached room temperature, or even better leave it untouched for a WHOLE DAY to rest - I can promise you, it’ll taste better tenfold.

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Note:

This recipe is versatile - instead of nuts, you can put pretty much anything in there - like dried fruit such as dried cherries, or fresh fruits like raspberry. Baking is meant to be fun & so don’t go out-of-your-way to buy the nuts if you haven’t got it (as nuts can be expensive). Use whatever that is in your store cupboard & experiment! like, be creative with sliced almonds & spell a letter on the surface!