Fudgy Brownies
Melted chocolate rather than cocoa, whipped eggs for the paper-thin crust, and pulled from the oven while the middle still wobbles.
- Prep
- 20m
- Cook
- 25m
- Waiting
- 2h
- Total
- 2h 45m
- Serves
- 16 squares
- Effort
- Moderate
Scale
Units
Method
| 200 g | 1 Melt together over barely simmering water, then cool slightly 8m | 3 Fold the chocolate mixture into the eggs in three goes 3m Gently — the air you beat in is what makes the shiny top. | 4 Fold in until no flour shows, then spread in a lined tin 3m | 5 Bake at 180°C / 350°F until the edges set and the centre wobbles 25m A skewer should come out with wet crumbs. Clean means overbaked. | |
| 1/2 cup | |||||
| 3 | 2 Whisk hard until pale, thick and tripled 5m Five full minutes. This is the step people skip and then wonder about the crust. | ||||
| 1 cup | |||||
| 1 tsp | |||||
| 2/3 cup | |||||
| 2 tbsp | |||||
| 1/2 tsp | |||||
| a pinch | |||||
- 1
Melt together over barely simmering water, then cool slightly
8m- dark chocolate 200 g
- unsalted butter 1/2 cup
- 2
Whisk hard until pale, thick and tripled
5m- eggs 3
- caster sugar 1 cup
- vanilla extract 1 tsp
Five full minutes. This is the step people skip and then wonder about the crust.
- 3
Fold the chocolate mixture into the eggs in three goes
3m- from 1 Melt together over barely simmering water, then cool slightly
- from 2 Whisk hard until pale, thick and tripled
Gently — the air you beat in is what makes the shiny top.
- 4
Fold in until no flour shows, then spread in a lined tin
3m- from 3 Fold the chocolate mixture into the eggs in three goes
- plain flour 2/3 cup
- cocoa powder 2 tbsp
- fine salt 1/2 tsp
- 5
Bake at 180°C / 350°F until the edges set and the centre wobbles
25m- from 4 Fold in until no flour shows, then spread in a lined tin
- flaky salt (optional) a pinch
A skewer should come out with wet crumbs. Clean means overbaked.
Where the shiny top comes from
That paper-thin crackled surface is a meringue. Whipping eggs with sugar dissolves the sugar and traps air; in the oven the surface layer dries into a brittle sheet. Melt the sugar into the butter instead and you get a good brownie with a dull top. Five minutes of whisking is the price.
Notes
- Chocolate melted with butter, not cocoa powder alone. Cocoa gives you a cakier crumb.
- Underbake deliberately. Brownies set as they cool and there is no fixing a dry one.
- Two hours in the tin before cutting, and a hot knife wiped between cuts.