Precision Brownies

This recipe comes from Nick Smith's teenage daughter. I filled in for his regular partner in the Premier League. He invited me over the evening before to go through our system. We retired to the study after dinner with coffee and brownies to keep us going.

This is the same version, adapted to include choc-chips and exclude nuts. I jotted it down on the first draft of our system card; Nick is a strong club devotee, hence Precision Brownies.

They're surprisingly quick to prepare and not too bad on washing up. You'll need:

Chocolate
  • 100g bar of best 70% chocolate
  • 150g unsalted butter
Dry stuff
  • 125g plain flour
  • ½ tsp. baking powder
  • pinch salt
Wet stuff
  • 2 beaten eggs
  • 100g soft brown sugar
  • 1 tsp. vanilla extract
Final stir
  • 200g mixed white/dark/milk chocolate chips (2 packs)
  1. Pre-heat oven to 200°C (turn down to 180°C to bake)
  2. Line a medium tray (24cm x 20cm, 9½" x 8") with baking parchment. Or not – they don't stick much. Have you put the oven on?
  3. Break the chocolate and roughly cube the butter into a bowl over pan of boiling water. It needn't get too hot, it will melt removed from the heat.
  4. Measure out the dry stuff and have it standing by (e.g. in the scale pan).
  5. Beat the eggs, add the other wet stuff and beat some more.
  6. Fold the chocolate into the eggs and keep it moving. It's quite tolerant but give the chocolate a rest if you're worried about cooking the eggs.
  7. Sift the dry stuff into the eggs and chocolate and keep folding.
  8. Stir in the chocolate chips and distribute; retain a few for the top.
  9. Puddle and pat into your tray, about 2cm deep, scatter a few choc-chips on top for effect.
  10. Bake for 22-25 minutes at 180°C (turn down from 200°).
  11. Cool in tray, turn out and cut after an hour, while still a bit warm.

This creates rich cake-like brownies that are suitable for picking up and eating. If you dare, remove from oven a minute or three earlier and they will be gooey inside and make excellent desserts.

The base recipe had 300g of sugar and nuts. Nick's daughter doesn't talk to strangers so I guessed to reduce the sugar when adding more chocolate. The chips are 'only' 60% sugar so this is a less sweet version for grown-ups.

Last updated: 5-Jul-2012