The Perfect Brownies

My search for the perfect Brownie recipe has been going on since as far as I can remember… Then last week I came across a book in the local library “Brownies” by Linda Collister and my search was over. I tried her classic brownie recipe and it was perfect…crunchy top with a moist and fudgy middle texture and more importantly, it was EASY to make. Love, love, love it! Let me share her recipe with you that I tweaked a bit to suit my taste…

INGREDIENTS:

100g of good quality plain chocolate
125 unsalted butter, softened
275g caster sugar
1 teaspoon real vanilla essence
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
85g plain flour
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
100g pecan halves or pieces
50g good quality lain chocolate  roughly chopped or plain choc chips

STEPS:

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F). Put butter in a large mixing bowl and using either a wooden spoon or electric mixer, beat until soft and creamy. Add the sugar (I would cut down the sugar if you prefer your brownie not too sweet) and vanilla and continue beating until mixture is soft and fluffy.

2. Beat in the eggs. (Since the eggs I had in the fridge was small in size, I put in 2 eggs and 1 egg yolk)

3. Break 100g chocolate into pieces and put it into heatproof bowl. Set the bowl over a pan of steaming water and melt chocolate gently, stirring frequently. Remove the bowl from the pan and leave to cool until needed. Add the melted chocolate.

4. Sift the flour and cocoa onto the mixture and stir.

5. Then add nuts (I used walnuts instead of pecan) and chocolate (I used choco chips) and stir in.

6. Transfer mixture into prepared tin and spread evenly

7. Bake for about 25-30 minutes (I baked mine for 45) until skewer inserted on sides and centre comes out just clean. Leave to cook then cut into pieces. Enjoy!!!