Brown's Brownies

This brownie recipe is my staple for whenever the need for brownies arises - much more often than you may think. 
I mostly make these brownies to give away - as many people I know have fallen deeply in love with them.
They are rich but not too rich, and highly addictive. I adapted the recipe from Nigella Lawson's snow-flecked brownie recipe (original recipe - http://www.channel4.com/4food/recipes/chefs/nigella-lawson/snow-flecked-brownies-recipe) and I have never looked back. I change the recipe in a few ways, but most importantly by refrigerating the brownies - and this makes the world of difference. 
You must must must try these.

  

Brown's Brownies 

Ingredients: 

• 360g dark chocolate (you can use chocolate with 70% cocoa, but any good dark chocolate will do - the more percentage of cocoa, the richer they will be!) 
• 400g unsalted butter (I know...I know...)
• 1.5 cups plus 2 tablespoons of plain flour
• 6 eggs (at least free range my friends - always needs to be free range! organic is even better!)
• 2 cups caster sugar (I know...I know....white sugar is also fine if it's what you have, you can also choose to cut this back a bit if you'd prefer but...why bother?)
• Splash of vanilla extract (I never measure vanilla, just free pour baby)
• Pinch of salt 
• 250g of white chocolate buttons/melts chopped up/chopped up white chocolate/throw some chunks of milk chocolate in too (I personally never measure this in cups, I just chop up a block of dream and some cadbury milk chocolate and throw that in if I have it - the more chocolate the better!)  

 Method:

1.  Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius and grease and line brownie tray with baking paper. You could use any large square tin - I'm not sure of the measurements required - but my brownie tray purchased for $25 at Victoria's Basement was the best thing my cousin Brydie ever bought for me! Go get one!
2.  In a medium sized saucepan, melt butter and dark chocolate on a low heat, stirring occasionally. Heat and stir (with a wooden spoon, always with a wooden spoon when involving heat!) until butter and chocolate are melted together, smooth and velvety. Don't leave the pan for too long as you avoid the butter burning and ending up with a curdled and grainy texture. Set aside to cool slightly when melted.
3. Whisk eggs, sugar and vanilla together. Pour this into the chocolate and butter mixture and whisk together in the pot.
4. Dump the flour and salt into this sugar-butter-chocolate-egg mixture and fold in with a wooden spoon.
5. Finally add the chocolate chunks, I recommend coating these in a little bit of flour before mixing them in to the mixture as this stops them from all sinking to the bottom during baking. Very lightly mix the chocolate chunks in, as they can melt easily and you want them to remain as chunks. 
6. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes.
7. Take out of the oven when done, they will be a lighter brown on top as the picture at the top shows.
8. Leave to cool to room temperature, cover with cling wrap and then refridgerate for a few hours.
9. Cut into slices, pile on a plate and dust with icing sugar (if serving at a party or otherwise). Other ways of eating these brownies - standing over the kitchen sink, be careful not to shovel them in too quickly however they are extremely "more-ish" (ick, sorry - I couldn't think of another word)  

This recipe is extremely versatile. You can exchange the chocolate for walnuts or macadamia nuts, you could add these as well as the chocolate. You could omit any white chocolate at all if you wanted (but that would be a bit silly...)

You can serve them with ice cream and make a chocolate sauce to go with, serve with fresh raspberries or blueberries, or as stated above, shovel them in as quickly as possible and feel no regrets.

As stated above, you don't have to refridgerate them, you can eat them gooey and hot, or room temperature - all of which are delicious - but I really feel that the refridgeration is key, it gives them more of a fudge-like texture and they keep longer in the fridge.

So go... make these....now. You will never look back.