Easy Decadent Chocolate Brownies
This recipe was given to me by my sister-in-law, Tren, and I LOVE it!! I make it all the time and in many variations, adding nuts or even frozen berries to the mix to change it up. It tastes no different to the complicated posh brownie recipes you find using real fancy chocolate and yet is SO much easier AND cheaper to make!
Serve it the traditional way at room temp in neatly cut squares but it also makes an INSANE dessert. Serve warm straight out the oven with choc sauce and ice cream on the side – your guests will weep in delight.
Serve it the traditional way at room temp in neatly cut squares but it also makes an INSANE dessert. Serve warm straight out the oven with choc sauce and ice cream on the side – your guests will weep in delight.
Ingredients
1 3/4 cups (210g) Cake Flour
4 Tbsp Cocoa
2 1/2 cups (500g) White Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla Essence
250g Salted Butter, softened
4 Eggs
Optional: 2 cups of nuts of your choice (roughly chopped) or frozen raspberries
4 Tbsp Cocoa
2 1/2 cups (500g) White Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla Essence
250g Salted Butter, softened
4 Eggs
Optional: 2 cups of nuts of your choice (roughly chopped) or frozen raspberries
Method
1. Pre-heat your oven to 180C. Use a +- 25cm square baking tin, and line with grease proof paper. You can also just use non stick spray and no paper but I tend to favour using paper because it guarantees you can get whatever you are baking out perfectly!
2. Using either an electric hand mixer or a stand mixer with paddle attachment, cream your sugar and butter together. Add the eggs one by one and then the vanilla essence.
3. Sift in your flour, cocoa and if using nuts mix them in now too. Take time to add in bit by bit to make sure all incorporated. Spoon the mix and spread evenly into your baking tin.
4. Bake for 25-30mins, check at 25mins – must be cooked around the edges but have a slight wobble in the inside! Do not over bake! I generally take them out at 25mins to be safe.
5. Remove from oven and either serve as pudding warm or chill to slice later.
6. If slicing later – allow to cool in pan slightly, then place pan in fridge to chill for a further few hours, this makes slicing them very easy as the brownies are quite firm. Place a chopping board on top of your tin, flip the entire pan out in one go and slice up into whatever sizes you would like. Allow them to get to room temperature if serving as is, or warm them up a bit in the microwave if serving as a dessert at a later stage.
Note: Chocolate pairs well with raspberries, so if you would like to make a raspberry variation of this recipe after step 3, by hand push individually frozen raspberries into the choc mix. Spread them out evenly, usually about 250g is enough for a batch.
2. Using either an electric hand mixer or a stand mixer with paddle attachment, cream your sugar and butter together. Add the eggs one by one and then the vanilla essence.
3. Sift in your flour, cocoa and if using nuts mix them in now too. Take time to add in bit by bit to make sure all incorporated. Spoon the mix and spread evenly into your baking tin.
4. Bake for 25-30mins, check at 25mins – must be cooked around the edges but have a slight wobble in the inside! Do not over bake! I generally take them out at 25mins to be safe.
5. Remove from oven and either serve as pudding warm or chill to slice later.
6. If slicing later – allow to cool in pan slightly, then place pan in fridge to chill for a further few hours, this makes slicing them very easy as the brownies are quite firm. Place a chopping board on top of your tin, flip the entire pan out in one go and slice up into whatever sizes you would like. Allow them to get to room temperature if serving as is, or warm them up a bit in the microwave if serving as a dessert at a later stage.
Note: Chocolate pairs well with raspberries, so if you would like to make a raspberry variation of this recipe after step 3, by hand push individually frozen raspberries into the choc mix. Spread them out evenly, usually about 250g is enough for a batch.