Just add sauce.. Best-ever brownies

Here's my new chocolate brownie recipe! Mmmmm....

Ingredients

185g unsalted butter

185g best dark chocolate

85g plain flour

40g cocoa powder

50g white chocolate

50g milk chocolate

3 large eggs

275g golden caster sugar

1) Cut the butter into smallish cubes and tip into a medium bowl. Break the dark chocolate into the small pieces and drop into the bowl. Fill a saucepan about a quarter full of warm water, then sit the bowl on top so it rests on the rim of the pan, not touching the water. Put

over a low heat until the butter and chocolate have melted, stirring occasionally to mix them. Now remove the bowl from the pan.

Alternatively, cover the bowl loosely with cling film for 2 minutes. Leave the melted mixture to cool at room temperature.

<- Melting the chocolate and the butter..mmmm

2)

While waiting for the chocolate mixture to cool, position a shelf in the middle of your oven and turn the oven to 160C/conventional180C/gas mark 4. Using a shallow 20cm square tin, cut out a square of non-stick baking parchment to line the base. Now tip the flour and cocoa powder into a sieve so they run through together and you get rid of any lumps.

-> After sieving the cocoa powder and flour together.. very messy.. :)

3) With a sharp knife, chop the white and

milk chocolate into chunks on a board. The slabs of chocolate will be fairly hard, so the safest way to do this is on a chopping board and use the tip of the knife. Do this until you end up with rough squares

.

<- Yeah, erm sorry for ruining your holiday diet :)

4)Break the eggs into a large bowl and tip in the sugar. With an electric mixer on maximu

m speed, whisk the eggs and sugar until they look thick and creamy, like a milk shake. It is ready when the mixture becomes real pale and doubled and its original volume.

Something like this.... :) ->

(this is only about a 1/10th of the mixture but this is the colour)

5) Pour the cooled chocolate mixture over the eggy mousse, th

en gently fold together with a with a rubber spatula. Plunge the spatula in at one side, take it underneath and bring it up the opposite side and in again at the middle. Continue g

oing under and over in a figure of eight, moving the bowl round after each folding so you can get at it from all sides, until the two mixtures are one and

the colour is a mottled brown.

<- From this....

...To this ->

Yum!

6) Hold the sieve over the bowl of eggy chocolate mixture and resift the cocoa and flour mixture, shaking the sieve from side to side, to cover the top evenly. Gently fold in this powder using the same figure of eight action as before. The mixture will look dry and dusty at first, and a bit unpromising, but if you keep going very gently and patiently, it will end up looking gungy and fudgy. Stop just before you feel you should, as you don't want to overdo this mixing. Finally, stir in the white and milk chocolate chunks until they're dotted throughout. Now your mixing is done and the oven can take over.

^ Just keep on folding...

7) Pour the mixture into the prepared tin, scraping every bit out of the bowl with the spatula. Gently ease the mixture into the corners of the tin and paddle the spatula from side to side across the top to level it. Put in the oven and set your timer for 25 minutes. When the buzzer goes, open the

oven, pull the shelf out a bit and gently shake the tin. If the brownie wobbles in the middle, it's not quite done, so slide it back in and bake for another 5 minutes until the top has a shiny, papery crust and the sides are just beginning to come away from the tin. Take out of the oven.

8) Leave the whole thing in the tin until completely cold, then, if you're using the brownie tin, lift up the protruding rim slightly and slide the uncut brownie out on its base. If you're using a normal tin, lift out the brownie with the foil. Cut into quarters, then cut each quarter into four squares and finally into triangles. These brownies are so addictive you'll want to make a second batch before the first is finished, but if you want to make some to hide away for a special occasion, it's useful to know that they'll keep in an airtight container for a good two weeks and in the freezer for up to a month.