200gDark chocolate minimum 70% cocoa solidssupermarket cooking chocolate is fine as long as it is 70% or more - chop as small as you can
3Large eggs - you will need 2 eggs and a yolkat room temperature
240gCaster sugar
50gPlain flour
50gCocoa powder I use cooking cocoa powder
¼teaspoonFine salt
300 gBox of After Eights or other mint thins
Handful of dark chocolate chunksoptional
Here's what we do...
Heat your oven to 140°C Fan/160°C/320°F/Gas Mark 3.
Grease and line your baking tin or dish. To do this cut a piece of greasepaper that covers the long sides and base of the tin. Ensure the paper overhangs the edges so that you can hold it to remove your brownies when baked.
Heat your butter in your saucepan. Do this on a gentle heat, so that none evaporates during the process.
Remove from the heat and add your finely chopped chocolate. Stir until melted and thoroughly combined. If you find the chocolate is not melting then return the mixture to the heat briefly, stirring all of the time until melted. Remove from the heat and allow to cool a little, so that it is warm but not hot.
In a separate bowl, sift together your flour, cocoa powder and salt.
In another bowl beat together your eggs and sugar until pale yellow, light and fluffy, this will take about 30 seconds using a hand mixer with the beaters attached.
Pour your chocolate mixture into your beaten eggs and sugar mixture and mix until combined. I find using a balloon whisk works well for this.
Add your sifted flour, cocoa and salt and gently fold in until fully combined.
Add half of your brownie batter to your prepared tin.
Set aside 8 After Eights and then place half of the rest of them over your brownie mixture, equally spaced out, then cover them with a second layer.
Cover with the rest of the brownie batter and dot over chocolate chunks if using.
Place in the centre of your oven and bake for 50-60 minutes. Your brownie mixture should have just a slight wobble in the middle when done, if they are too wobbly then they will be mush in the middle. Mine usually take an hour to bake.
As soon as they come out of the oven dot over the remaining eight After Eights, so that they just melt a little as the mixture cools.
Leave to cool completely then using the greaseproof paper overhand to remove to a cooling rack. Cut into squares and enjoy!
To ensure your brownies are fudgy and not cakey keep your mixing to a minimum so that you do not incorporate extra air. Your batter should be silky in texture when ready
Ensure you cool your brownies at room temperature, don't be tempted to refrigerate to speed up the process because they won't set properly inside if cooled too quickly. Also, don't try to cut them up before totally cool.
Brownies like to be baked at just the right temperature for just the right amount of time. Overbake just by minutes and they are cakey, under bake and they can be raw in the middle.
To know when they are baked, give the tin a gentle shake and look for a bit of a wobble, just in the very middle but not a huge jelly-like wobble.
Another test is to insert a skewer or cocktail stick into the centre of your After Eight Brownies and continue baking if it comes out coated in uncooked batter. If just coated in a few cakes, fudgy bits then your brownies are done.