Classic Chocolate Brownies

Ingredients:  

250g Valrhona Chocolate Guanaja 70% 

125g unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing the tin  

105g dark muscovado sugar  

105g golden caster sugar  

3 large free-range eggs, at room temperature  

80g plain flour (or ground almonds if making gluten free) 

1 tbsp cocoa powder, sieved 

½ tsp fine sea salt  

50g chopped walnuts

Method:  

Preheat the oven to 180C.   

Use a little butter to grease the inside of a 23cm/9in square baking tin. Cut a square of baking parchment a bit bigger than your tin (roughly 27cm/11in). Snip a 5cm/2in cut diagonally from the corners toward the centre. Push the paper into the tin and ease the paper into the corners neatly – they will overlap slightly. Trim if needed

Place a medium saucepan on the hob with an inch or two of water and bring to a simmer. We will use this to create a double boiler.

Using a large sharp knife, chop the dark chocolate into small pieces (the smaller the pieces, the quicker it will melt). Place the chopped dark chocolate with the butter into a large bowl that will sit on top of your pan of simmering water. 

Set the bowl over the pan of simmering water, making sure that the bottom of the bowl does not touch the water. Keep the heat low – the water should not be boiling furiously underneath, but quietly bubbling. After a few minutes the chocolate and butter will start to melt. Stir occasionally, until the chocolate is mostly melted. Remove the bowl from the pan and set aside. The residual heat in the chocolate will finish off the melting process.  

Whisk the sugar into the melted chocolate, then add the eggs and whisk together well until the mix is slightly bubbly.   

Sift the flour (or almonds), cocoa powder and the salt into a separate bowl. Using a large metal spoon, add the flour mix into the chocolate mixture a third at a time, and gently fold into the chocolate mixture until thoroughly combined. 

Add walnuts and fold in lightly to distribute. 

Gently pour the batter into the prepared tin, and scatter the remaining chunks of chocolate on top. Bake the brownies for approx 18-22 minutes. If you want fudgy style brownies, 16 min may do the job – there should be a very slight wobble in the middle, as they will continue to cook for a little while when removed from the oven. An over-baked brownie is dry and crumbly, rather than moist and fudgy, so keep an eye on them!