Saturday, August 25, 2018

Best Fudgy Cocoa Brownies


The best, fudgy one bowl cocoa brownies! a special addition gives these brownies a super fudgy centre without losing that crispy, crackly top!

Ingredients
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
  • 1 tablespoon cooking oil, (olive oil or coconut oil are fine)
  • 1 1/8 cup superfine sugar, (caster sugar or white granulated sugar)*
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup all purpose (or plain) flour
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt

Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 175°C | 350°F.
  2. Lightly grease an 8-inch square baking pan with cooking oil spray. Line with parchment paper (or baking paper); set aside.
  3. Combine melted butter, oil and sugar together in a medium-sized bowl. Whisk well for about a minute. Add the eggs and vanilla; beat until lighter in colour (another minute).
  4. Sift in flour, cocoa powder and salt. Gently fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until JUST combined (do NOT over beat as doing so well affect the texture of your brownies).
  5. Pour batter into prepared pan, smoothing the top out evenly. (OPTIONAL: Top with chocolate chunks or chocolate chips.)
  6. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the centre of the brownies in the pan no longer jiggles and is just set to the touch (the brownies will keep baking in the hot pan out of the oven). If testing with a toothpick, the toothpick should come out dirty for fudge-textured brownies.
  7. Remove and allow to cool to room temperature before slicing into 16 brownies.
  8. OPTIONAL ADD INS:
  9. Crushed walnuts, peanuts, almonds, pecans, etc. Chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, chocolate chunks, dried fruit (cranberries, raisins, etc)
  10. Recipe Notes
  11. *Regular white, granulated, sugar can be used if you can't find caster sugar. For even fudgier brownies, use half white and half light brown sugar!

TIPS AND TRICKS:
1. Whisk your butter and sugar really well.
2. Beat in your eggs for a good minute. This step is crucial for that crackly top
3. Do NOT over beat your batter once the flour and cocoa powder are added. THAT creates air pockets in the batter which will give you cake-like textured brownies.
4. Do NOT over bake them! I like mine at exactly 21:30 minutes. You can go a little bit over if you like them set a bit more, but I don't recommend it if you're looking for the fudgiest brownies in this lifetime.
5. I bake my brownies on the top shelf in the oven. I find the middle shelf cooks them a lot faster and dries them out.