Best ever brownies

The term ‘best ever’ gets bandied about with embarrassing frequency in the food blog world, but I feel these brownies truly warrant the moniker. They’re rich, super fudgy and will inevitably become your go-to baked good for impressing fellow dietary requirement folk – and beyond!

Credit: Georgia McDermott

• makes

  12

• prep

  30 minutes

• cook

  30 minutes

• difficulty

  Easy

Ingredients

• 150 g butter
• 200 g dark chocolate (50-70% cocoa solids - see Notes)
• 3 extra-large eggs
• 220 g (1 cup) caster sugar (or 110 g light brown and 110 g caster sugar)
• a pinch of salt
• 2 tsp vanilla bean paste
• 2 tbsp Dutch-processed cocoa powder
• 1 tbsp hot water
• 1 tbsp freshly brewed espresso coffee
• 100 g (1 cup) almond meal

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C and line a 24 cm × 24 cm (base measurement) baking tin with baking paper.
2. Place butter and chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, ensuring the base of the bowl does not touch the water. Cook, stirring until melted and well combined. Set aside to cool slightly.
3. Place eggs and sugar in a large bowl or bowl of your stand mixer. Using electric beaters or stand mixer with the whisk attachment, beat on medium speed for 7–10 minutes or until the mixture is light (almost white) and fluffy. This will help create the crackly meringue surface.
4. Add the salt, vanilla bean paste and cocoa to the chocolate mixture. Pour the hot water and coffee over the cocoa to ‘bloom’ it – bring out the depth of the chocolate flavour. Stir until the additions are just mixed in with the chocolate and butter.
5. With the motor on a low speed, add the chocolate mixture to the egg mixture in a steady stream. Beat on low until well combined, about 1–2 minutes.
6. Add the almond meal and beat until just combined (be careful not to overbeat). Pour mixture into prepared pan and bake for 20–35 minutes, depending on how ‘done’ you like your brownies.
7. Set brownies aside to cool completely in the tin before slicing.

Notes

• Brownies are best made the night before to allow them time to set before slicing. I also highly recommend keeping these in the fridge – when they’re fresh from the oven they can be hard to eat for their fudginess. I like to sprinkle my brownies with a little extra sea salt, but you do you.

• If you don’t want to use almonds, use 30 g (¼ cup) tapioca flour and 40 g (¼ cup) fine white rice flour in place of the almond meal. Bake time will be the lower end of the range specified. 50% dark chocolate will yield a shinier, more aesthetically pleasing brownie, but it does contain more milk solids. 70% dark chocolate will yield a more matte brownie but it contains less milk solids and is, therefore, a FODMAP-friendly choice.

Intolerance-Friendly Kitchen by Georgia McDermott has been published by Penguin Random House Australia. 

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.