It’s our favourite time of the year. No it’s not Christmas (yet), it’s not Easter and we’re definitely not celebrating a birthday… it’s National Chocolate Week! A time when you can stuff your face with chocolate and not be judged because there’s a legitimate, nationally celebrated excuse. Winning.
To pay tribute to this glorious holiday, our resident Northerner and all-round baking wizard-ess Donna has written out step-by-step instructions so you can make our all time favourite chocolate recipes at home.
We’ve managed (just about…) to narrow it down to three – a Signature, a Technical and a Showstopper bake, a la The Great British Bake Off. All of them are classic recipes, deliciously moorish and chock-a-block with, well, chocolate!
This one is the Signature Bake – the best ever chocolate brownies. It’s our go-to ‘works-every-time’ recipe and continues to be the bestseller in our café. Simply follow Donna’s instructions for perfectly rich, dense and gooey brownies every time!
About the bake
To achieve said deliciously dense and gooey bake, you need to pay particular attention to the method. Some brownie recipes call for whisking eggs and sugar before adding melted chocolate, but for us, this creates a cake-ier brownie…If this is your thing, then go ahead and cake it up! But we prefer ours on the soft and squidgy side.
Fudgey-ness and gooeyness come from one main component – fat, and lots of it. This recipe uses our dark 55% chocolate which can be bought in 1kg bags of buttons (this makes the process of melting the chocolate a lot easier and quicker – plus they’re great for a sneaky nibble when no one’s looking! Buy them here).
If you’re after an even richer flavour, then swap the 55% chocolate for our super dark 70%. Similarly, the dark chocolate can be substituted for any of our flavoured bars for equally delicious results (FYI, our caramel sea salt or dark orange bars work really well in this recipe).
Donna’s top tip is to always use unsalted butter when baking, because the salt that’s used can be inferior (she says a pinch of Cornish Sea Salt is the perfect flavour enhancer). She’s also yelling the words “oven thermometer” at us across the room – apparently they’re a cheap bit of essential kit but will last you a long time and really help your baking processes.
And her final words of wisdom on this bake is to melt the butter and chocolate slowly over a gentle heat so that the chocolate doesn’t burn. The best way to do this is over a bain-marie, which is a bowl set over a pan of simmering water. If the temperature is too high and the water is boiling rapidly you run the risk of water spurting up over the bowl and into your chocolate, which will instantly seize the chocolate, and then it’s game over. So without further ado, here it is – everything you need to know to make the best ever Kernow Chocolate brownies!
The ingredients
200g unsalted butter
200g Kernow dark chocolate (55%)
200g caster sugar
130g sifted plain flour
50g sifted cocoa powder
A pinch of good quality salt
4 medium eggs
The method
1. Preheat your oven to 160⁰c.
2. Line a 23cm square tin with baking parchment (a handy tip is to tightly scrunch up the paper so that it effortlessly fits into the corners of your tin when unpacked).
3. Melt the butter and chocolate over the bain-marie, stirring occasionally.
4. Once melted, take off the heat and gently whisk in the caster sugar until completely incorporated.
5. Add the eggs one at a time, whisking until JUST mixed.
6. Gently fold in your dry ingredients until well incorporated, making sure there are no signs of any pockets of flour.
7. Pour into the tin and level out.
8. Pop into the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes
9. Once baked, place the tin on a wire rack until completely cool before cutting it into the desired number of pieces
10. Eat and enjoy the pure brownie bliss. You’re welcome!
Let us know how your Kernow Chocolate ‘best ever brownies’ turn out in the comments – and stay tuned for the Technical and Showstopper bakes! Trust us, you don’t want to miss them…
