BURNT BUTTER BROWNIES WITH CHOCOLATE SOUR CREAM GANACHE

 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.

A sour cream infused ganache to be in fact. Ever tried it? You should.

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, fudginess will remain.

Cuts into 9 – 12 slices, depending how big you slice them

For the brownies

200g dark chocolate

180g unsalted butter

150g soft brown sugar

150g dark brown sugar

70g cocoa powder

150g plain flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon fine instant coffee powder

4 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the ganache

100g dark chocolate

100g milk chocolate

100g sour cream

1. Preheat your oven to 190c and grab yourself a rectangle brownie tin. I use the foil throwaway ones because washing be damned.
2. Chop then dark chocolate on a chopping board – I like a mixture of sandy rubble and sexy chunks – and put it to one side for later.
3. In a large saucepan and on a medium heat, melt the butter, stirring frequently as 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).
4. Now, still off the heat, throw in both sugars and a pinch of salt into the burnt butter to create a dark, nutty treacle.
5. Put a sieve over the saucepan, and put the cocoa powder, plain flour, baking powder and 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.
6. Now in a mug or jug, beat together the eggs and vanilla extract, and pour into the saucepan and stir everything together until you have a loose and fudgy dark batter.
7. Empty in the chopped chocolate from earlier. You could also add a big handful of chopped walnuts here, if you feel inclined.
8. Once everything is combined, empty into the rectangle tray and bake for 35 – 40 minutes.
9. 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 the ganache.
10. For the ganache, nuke both chocolates in a microwave in intervals of 10 seconds, stirring at every interval until the chocolate has melted to a pool of goodness.
11. Once it’s all melted, stir in the 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.