Nigel Slater’s Brownies

Medically reviewed by Christiana George Updated Date: June 8, 2023

A quick appearance to say: these are the best brownies I’ve ever had.

We all have different opinions on the topic, I know, but such are the power of these specimens that they shattered all my notions of what a brownie should be—and I’d been firmly in the cake-y camp, you know?—and replaced them with these burnished beauties.

In Nigel’s words, they’re as “dense and fudgy as Glastonbury Festival mud.” I like that. Why can’t we all try to be that way?

NIGEL SLATER’S BROWNIES

Makes one 9″ square pan
From The Kitchen Diaries

I’m a firm believer in weight measurements these days, and as a consequence, all the volume measurements below are approximate. In other words, I recommend getting a digital scale! It’s tremendously helpful. Also, this recipe is from the UK version of The Kitchen Diaries, hence the metric measurements. But don’t you prefer metric measurements anyway? They’re so reliable.

Ingredients:

60 grams (a scant 1/2 cup) all-purpose flour
60 grams (1/2 cup) cocoa powder
1/2 t baking powder
200 grams (1-2/3 cups, roughly chopped) semisweet or bittersweet chocolate
300 grams (1-1/2 cups) granulated sugar
250 grams (2 4-oz. sticks plus 2 T) unsalted butter, room temperature
3 large eggs, plus 1 egg yolk, lightly beaten

Directions:

Line a 9″ square pan with parchment paper. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Sift the flour, cocoa powder, and baking powder in a small bowl. Melt the chocolate and set it aside.

In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until soft, creamy, and a bit airy. Add the lightly beaten eggs a little at a time, incorporating them fully between each pour. Mix in the melted chocolate. Finally, fold in the flour mixture gently but firmly.

Pour the mixture into the prepared pan, smooth out the top, and bake for about 30-35 minutes. The brownie will be a bit jiggly when it comes out of the oven, but the top should have puffed slightly, and a toothpick stuck through the middle should come out sticky but without raw batter attached.

Cool for an hour, during which the brownie will solidify more fully. Cut into squares and enjoy!

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Family Night

Recipes

Christiana George

Updated Date:
June 8, 2023

Sometimes being a parent is the perfect excuse for doing fun kids stuff. I mean , yeah, we can all say we are just doing it for the kids, but who are we kidding. We are all big kids ourselves. This past weekend we had beautiful fall weather in New England , so my husband brought the fire pit on the deck and we had ourselves a campfire. We grabbed some pizza and ate in by the fire. Then afterwards it was time for some s’mores.

We have taken my daughter camping before and she loves campfires, toasted marshmallows and s’mores. The little guy is new to all this, but he loved watching the fire and we gave him a taste of toasted marshmallows and s’mores. He was all over it. Couldn’t get enough.

I always ate the s’mores when we went camping, but I was never really into them much. I love chocolate and we used Hershey’s milk chocolate bars, but the taste was never right. Now I seemed to have figured out the problem…dark chocolate. Oh my, what a difference it made. The dark chocolate was a perfect match for the sticky marshmallows and crispy graham crackers. I had to have more than just one. They were eewy, gooey, chocolaty good.

Just look at this guy’s face, doesn’t he look happy? We all had fun and enjoyed our evening. My daughter had chocolate all over her face and clothes. I found a lump of chocolate in the little one’s hair. And the deck was a sticky mess. But hey, it was all about the fun. These are the memories that I hope my children remember as they get older and hopefully share with their children.