BAKERS BROWNIES RECIPES

Steps:

• 1. Melt together 1 stick butter and 2 squares unsweetened chocolate and take the saucepan off the heat.
• 2. Stir in 1 cup sugar, add 2 eggs and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, and beat the mixture well.
• 3. Stir in 1/4 cup all-purpose flour and 1/4 teaspoon salt. (In the original recipe, 1 cup chopped walnuts is added here as well.)
• 4. Bake the brownies in a buttered and floured 8-inch-square pan at 325°F for about 40 minutes.
• You can cut these brownies into squares, once they have cooled, and eat them out of the pan, but it is so much nicer to pile them on a fancy plate, from which people are going to eat them with their hands anyway. If you want to smarten up your act you can put a square of brownie on a plate with a little blob of créme fraîche and a scattering of shaved chocolate.

Steps:

• Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Butter a 4cm-deep, 20 x 20cm square cake tin and line with baking parchment. Melt 200g of the chocolate together with the butter in a large heatproof bowl set over a pan of just simmering water (ensure the bottom of the bowl doesn’t touch the water), stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat and leave to cool for 10 mins.
• Meanwhile, whisk the sugar, eggs and a pinch of salt together in a large bowl until pale and foamy – it should look like a frothy milkshake. This will take 2-3 mins with an electric whisk, or about 5-8 mins with a balloon whisk. Pour in the butter and chocolate mixture along with the almonds, then fold everything together until there are no streaks of chocolate. Tip the mixture into the tin, scatter over the rest of the chocolate, and bake for 25 mins, until cooked with a slight wobble in the middle.
• Leave to cool for 10 mins, then scoop into bowls and serve warm for a pudding. Alternatively, leave to cool completely in the tin, then cut into squares and store in an airtight tin. Will keep for up to five days.