Nigel Slater's Choc Brownies

[aseriouslyblondemoment]

does anyone have a recipe to beat his?

Just made the nigel slater ones, they've been in the oven for 45 mins now and are still raw... what have I done wrong and what should I do???

helllllllllllp!!!

I know I am too late but.....what do you mean by raw? When you give it a little shake, the centre should wobble. When you stick a skewer in the centre, it should come out with some sticky goo attached. As he says in the recipe, not totally liquid raw cake mix, but sticky goo stuck to the skewer.

They solidify a fair bit on cooling, esp when put in the fridge when cold. They are supposed to be fudgey and that means they won't be fully cooked ie cakey in the middle when they come out of the oven.

hi taffeta.. no it was still liquid.

5 mins more after I posted and it was fine.. just don't know why it took so long :/

I have a fan oven so baked at 160 degrees in tht which is what the conversion table said it should be.

oooh fan. never done it in a fan. maybe up the temp a wee bit next time. 165?

hop they are good

akhems, I do mine at 180 in a fan and they take about 25 mins.. maybe all fans are not equal? Do you have to adjust much for other items? I find generally that I don't change the temp much and don't notice much difference other than cakes cook a little more evenly.

thanks 120, I'll try that next time.
I've not had the oven long so am still being diligent about following the instructions

i haev the best on in the wrold
has 5 eggs in it

I've made these a few times and they're lovely:

575g plain choclate
225g butter
3 eggs
30 ml freshly made strong coffee
225g caster sugar
75g SR white flour
tsp salt
175g walnuts, chopped
tsp vannila extract

1 Grease and line the tin... i think i used a regular baking sheet last time so anything around that size

2 chop 225g of the choc and set aside. Melt the ramaining choc and butter in a bowl over hot water and leave to cool slightly

3 Mix the eggs, coffee and sugar together until smooth than gradualy beat into the choclate mixture. Fold in the remaining ingredients

4 Pour into the tin and bake at 190 deg for 40-45 minutes

5 Leave in the tin to cool, then turn out and cut into sections.

I haven't tried Nigel Slater's recipe but the one from an old Usborne Cookbook is wonderful. I've adapted it slightly:
Grease/line an 18x28cm shallow oblong tin
Oven: 180 C/350 F/Gas 4

110 g butter
110 g plain chocolate
1tsp coffee granules(optional)
225 g caster sugar
2 beaten eggs
110g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder

Break up chocolate and melt in microwave on High for 1 minute.
Add butter (cut up into cubes or slices) (and optionally the coffee powder if you want a more "sophisticated" taste)and melt on High for another minute
Mix together to ensure both are melted
Add sugar and egg and finally sieved flour and baking powder.
Spread mixture in baking tin and bake for 25 mins - 30 mins (I find 25 mins is generally OK) until mixture has slightly come away from sides of tin.
Cool on rack. It will sink a little in the middle. Cut into squares - the brownies should be crisp on top and slightly gooey in the middle.

akhems i also bake mine in the fan oven @ 160
i find that nige's take 32mins
TC's description of the slightly sticky goo in the middle is spot on
tulips wow that's an awful lot of choc in your recipe!
do you get a strong taste of coffee?
lily your recipe sounds good less choc but more flour,do you tend to include the coffee powder?
Hope i think it's a matter of personal taste tbh
which is your fav brownie recipe?

Blonde - I like to include the coffee powder when making the brownies for adults as I like the mocha flavour.
Cooked without the coffee they are still very acceptable to both adults and children - all my friends now use this recipe, so it must be good!
I use either Chocolat Menier or any other good (but not massively expensive) cooking chocolate and I always use butter rather than margarine/spread. They are very quick and easy to make (unless you overcook the chocolate) and use only one bowl plus the baking tin.

Lily, is the coffee flavour very strong, or just sort of background?

Made Nig's yesterday - they are very good. I like th peat bog type and the broken up chocolate which then soldifies into little mini chunks is genuis.

I need to work on my timings though - my oven overcooks everything so I went a bit cooler and covered the top to avoid scorching. In the end, the middle was stil raw and the edges cooked so I had to cut the middle out and turn that bit into fudge brownie pudding type thing for another day.

Won't stop me making them again though! It's not exactly a hard life eating all your mistakes if they are as tasty as that!

ASBM... no the coffee flavour isn't very strong, if you didn't know it was in there i doubt you'd notice tbh but it does round out the flavour nicely. The great thing about these is that although it's tonnes of chocolate, i've done them with cheap cooking chocolate and they tasted wonderful so it doesn't have to be expensive, in fact i think with that much chocolate 70% G&B would probably be far too strong

Lily, is the coffee flavour very strong, or just sort of background?

120
More background than strong coffee flavour - and of course you can adjust to suit your preferences.

tulips that's good to hear as i mostly make my brownies with sainsbos 27p bars and only use g&b for adults/serious chocoholics
think i might dabble with the coffee quantity tho
i've been thinking about heffer's whisky brownie recipe actually and wondering whether it would work with rum?
i was thinking along the lines of soaking raisins in rum overnight and then adding them into the mix

I'm definitely going to try the whiskey brownies at the next possible opportunity. they sound yum. I wonder if there is anyone out there with a good white choc recipe too?

can post Tana's if you like - its a white and dark choc mix - made with cream cheese too ( or mascarpone )

Aseriouslyblondemoment - I reckon rum would work too. I think I've tried that before when we didn't have any whisky actually, I've certainly played around with it a bit before now. The raisin idea sounds yummy as well.

Taffeta, that definitely sounds interesting, yes please!

Tana's Double Choc Brownies

Dark choc mix
200g dark chocolate
200g butter
250g caster sugar
3 eggs
125g plain flour

White choc mix
1 egg
200g cream cheese/mascarpone
50g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
100g white chco, broken into pieces

Preheat oven 180c/Gas 4. Grease and line 23cm square brownie tin.

For dark choc mix, melt dark choc and butter, either bowl over pan of simmering water or microwave. Stir well to combine and cool slightly.
For white choc mix, whisk egg, cream cheese/mascarpone, sugar and vanilla until smooth. Stir in white choc pieces and set aside.
Returning to dark choc mix, whisk together sugar and eggs, then gently pour in melted choc/butter mix whilst still whisking. Fold in flour with metal spoon.
Pour half dark choc mix into tin, then pour over much runnier white choc mix. Finally, dollop in remaining dark choc mix, ensure evenly distributed in tin. With the handle of a wooden spoon, lightly swirl the contents of the tin, with broad strokes. Don't overmix. Bake for 35 mins. Cool very well before cutting in the tin.

TC which recipe do your dcs prefer?

they aren't fussy

IME, foodie friends like Nige's best

Tana's are more of an all round crowd pleaser

I made the Hummingbird brownies at the weekend with DD and they were pretty good but not the best I've ever had. We had them with icecream a couple of nights and they were better as a pudding.

The Tana recipe sounds good, I might try that soon.