We spend a lot of time creating new and interesting recipes at The City Lane that sometimes it’s easy to forget about the classics. Sure there’s no shortage or recipes for chocolate brownies, chicken soup or other staples however we think it would be remiss of us not to share some of our classic favourites given the frequency with which we cook and eat them at home. Most importantly for you, these are recipes that all taste great and aren’t overly complex to prepare and cook.
You’ll notice a few staples appearing on The City Lane over the coming months, along with the more exotic recipes that we love to share with you too. To kick things off, we’re sharing with you our decadent chocolate brownies recipe. They’re dense, rich in flavour and very chocolaty. We challenge you to stop at one!
We’d also like to thank The Essential Ingredient for sending us a jar of the lovely Lindt Piccoli Single-origin Ecuador (70%) Couverture Chocolate which we used in this recipe. We’re big fans of Ecuadorian cocoa beans when it comes to baking. Anything around 68-72% has just the right balance between sweetness and bitterness and the Lindt version worked a treat.
Preparation Time: 10 minutes / Cooking Time: 45 minutes / Makes 12 brownies
Ingredients
- 200g dark chocolate
- 200g unsalted butter
- 4 large eggs (57g), separated into yolk and egg whites
- 20g vanilla essence
- 200g caster sugar
- 125g plain flour, sifted
- 35g cocoa powder, sifted
- butter to grease your baking tin
Method
- Preheat your oven to 160°C fan forced.
- Melt the chocolate and butter in a microwave or on the stove on a low heat.
- Whip the egg whites into stiff peaks. You want to be able to turn the bowl upside down and for the egg whites to not move.
- Add the flour, egg yolks, cocoa powder and vanilla to the chocolate and butter. Mix well.
- Lightly fold the egg whites into the chocolate mixture. This will ensure you have a light mixture.
- Grease your baking tin with butter.
- Transfer the mixture into the baking tin and bake for 45 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and transfer onto a cooling rack.
- Cut into 12 even pieces and eat as desired.
Notes
The brownies will last for 3 days if stored in an airtight container, and actually taste best the day after.
As mentioned at the start of the recipe, the best chocolate to use is an Ecuadorian 68%-70% dark chocolate. If you can’t find Equadorian chocolate, try and find one with the correct percentage. If you can’t find that either, regular dark chocolate will do. The brownies will still taste great, but won’t have quite the same decadence and will be a touch sweeter than would otherwise be the case.