Brownies

I always want to go into raptures about American home baking, because it is something than America has always done so well. Cookies, biscuits, cakes, breads, there is a world of good baking which originates from America. Well, maybe not originates exactly because most of it has German, French, Scandinavian, Italian roots depending on where settler families set out from, but it has been perfected there. Some recipes, such as cornbread (there is nothing better with chili) owe a great debt to the lifesaving skills taught to the first settlers by Native Americans. But the quintessential American baking recipe is the brownie. 

I don't know why I haven't written this post before. Possibly because brownies are such a staple of the domestic cook's repertoire that I assumed everyone knew how to make them. It turns out they don't. Or, at least, not the way I do it. Which I'm going to be a bit snobby about because this recipe makes the best, squidgiest, chocolatiest brownies in the world. The origins of this recipe lie in the wonderful Sainsbury's recipe books of the 1980s. Written largely by Josceline Dimbleby, they featured heavily in my culinary education, being the books my mother always had to hand, along with the Dairy Book of Home Cooking and the Readers' Digest Cookery Year. I still have half a dozen on my shelves, although SOMEONE ELSE HAS THE ONE ABOUT AMERICAN BAKING, which is where this recipe originates.

The secret of this recipe isn't in the ingredients, which are simple enough, but in the method. Take the butter and melt it gently with the cocoa. it doesn't need melted chocolate of anything else, but melting the butter and cocoa together releases the chocolatiness of the cocoa in a way nothing else will match. The other secret is whisking the eggs and sugar together until they are light, fluffy and doubled in volume. This process also melts the sugar slightly (friction) so that you get that illusive crispy crust on top. Take your time. Don't hurry this recipe (although if you have to...). Allow time for the melting to happen and then to begin to cool. Then allow time for the eggs and sugar to achieve fluffy lightness. Then add flour. That is all. How much flour depends on what you're adding to your brownes. If chocolate chips and nuts, then only fifty grams to get stickiness and moisture in the finished brownie. If, however, you're going for the midsummer gloriousness of Black Forest brownies, then 100g will give more body to support the moist fruit.

Ingredients

250g unsalted butter

100g cocoa

a teaspoon of vanilla or almond essence (the good stuff) if you wish

200g caster sugar

3 eggs

50g (to 100g) Self Raising flour (or plain with your usual baking powder amount). Extra flour will make a slightly firmer brownie and this will better support fresh fruit.

50g walnuts, pecans or whatever you enjoy

50g chocolate chips which could be plain, milk, white or a mixture

or 100g chocolate chips if you're making them for my children

or

a generous mugful of washed, stoned, halved cherries

Method

Preheat your oven to 180c.  Prepare a pan, with oil & flour if needed. Mine is a 20cm silicone with a metal frame for convenience and has the advantage of not needing much prep.

Melt the butter and cocoa together in a pan, stirring until perfectly smooth. I don't use the mircrowave for this - there is too much danger of overheating and irretrievable lumpiness. Leave the mixture to one side to cool a little. You can add any flavourings you like at this stage. a teaspoon of vanilla extract, or almond if you're using cherries.

Whisk the sugar and eggs together until well risen and light.

Gently fold the chocolate mix into the eggs & sugar until completely combined. Then fold the flour in, gently but firmly until smooth. Add nuts, chocolate, or cherries.

Bake for 30 minutes until it is cooked at the edges and still a bit sticky in the centre. Then cool before cutting into squares. I find this amount makes sixteen perfectly sized brownies. My only decoration for these is a sifting of icing sugar.

You can very easily double this recipe to feed a crowd, using a larger square or oblong pan.

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