BURNT BUTTER BROWNIES WITH CHOCOLATE SOUR CREAM GANACHE

I often get uncomfortable when food writers use words unnecessarily to describe food. I know we have a job to do, but some words are just uncalled for.

Having said that, these brownies are dripping.

I’ll say it again. Dripping.

These brownies were requested when I visited my Mothers house a Sunday or two ago for a Roast. I am always happy to cook on request, particularly when it’s brownies that have been requested.

I have several brownie recipes up my sleeve for several occasions, but with this one I knew I wanted something that had a bit more soul to it.

Soul meaning a treacly, nutty burnt butter in the guts and a syrupy, bitter sweet chocolate ganache DRIPPING down the sides.

That, dear reader, is soul.

An absolute breeze to make, all done in one saucepan with a few ingredients and a strong Madonna forearm. They are slightly under baked, and made all the better for it, and once you let them sit overnight they get a slightly firmer architecture so you can pick them up with your hand, but that gooey, DRIPPYNESS will remain.

Preheat your oven to 190c and grab yourself a rectangle brownie tin. I use the foil throwaway ones because washing be damned.

Grab 200g of dark chocolate and chop it up using a knife. I like a mixture of sandy rubble and sexy chunks. Put it to one side for later.

In a saucepan, melt 180g of unsalted butter on a medium heat. Turn up the heat to high and keep stirring so that the butter begins to bubble and froth. Once the butter turns a deep amber, take off the heat and put on a cold surface (your metal dish draining board would be fine!).

This is burnt butter. It’s banging.

Now, still off the heat, throw in 150g of soft brown sugar and 150g of dark brown sugar and stir into the burnt butter to create a dark, nutty treacle.

Put a sieve over the saucepan and put 70g of cocoa powder, 150g of plain flour, ½ teaspoon of baking powder and a teaspoon of fine instant coffee powder into the sieve. Stir all the powders through the sieve into the pan.

Using a wooden spoon and an enthusiastic arm, stir the dry ingredients into the wet.

Now in a mug or jug, eat together four eggs with a little salt and some vanilla extract. Once they all combine, pour into the saucepan and stir everything together until you have a loose and fudgy dark batter.

Empty in the chopped chocolate from earlier. You could also add a big handful of chopped walnuts here but I was catering for someone with a nut allergy so opted out.

Once everything is combined, empty into the rectangle tray and bake for 30 – 35 minutes.

When the time is up, take out of the oven and let rest for an hour or so until you can take the brownie out in one slab and put on a chopping board. Now what I do is cut everything into small squares, pile them up high on a cake stand and drizzle with a ganache. A sour cream infused ganache to be in fact. Ever tried it? You should.

How you make the ganache is (so simple) but start by microwaving 200g of dark, dark chocolate in a microwave in intervals of 10 seconds, stirring at every interval until the chocolate has melted to a pool of goodness.

Once it’s all melted, stir in 100g of sour cream to create a thick, creamy chocolate sauce. Pour this – slowly… because that slow pouring of chocolate sauce is visual poetry – over the squared up brownies.

Let the chocolate set. Put the cake stand out on a table for everyone to see. Let everyone eat the brownies.

Be smug.

Dripping… once more just cos.