Thursday, 8 June 2006

Trinny Woodall's Chocolate Brownies

Style guru Trinny likes to bake brownies in her spare time

Trinny Woodall

Ingredients

375g/13oz soft unsalted butter
375g/13oz best-quality dark chocolate
6 large eggs
1tbsp vanilla extract
500g/1lb 2oz caster sugar
225g/½lb plain flour
1tsp salt
50g/2oz white chocolate (roughly chopped)

Method

1 Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas 4. Line your brownie pan – I think it's worth lining the sides as well as the base – with foil, parchment or Bake-O-Glide.
2 Melt the butter and chocolate together in a large heavy-based pan. In a bowl or large wide-mouthed measuring jug, beat the eggs with the vanilla and sugar. Measure the flour into another bowl and add the salt.
3 When the chocolate mixture is melted, let it cool a little before beating in the eggs and sugar, then the white chocolate and flour. Beat to combine smoothly and then scrape out of the saucepan into the lined pan.
4 Bake for about 25 mins. When it's ready, the top should be dried to a pale brown speckle, but the middle should still be dark, dense and gooey. And even with such a big batch, you need to keep checking – the difference between gungy brownies and dry brownies is only a few minutes; remember that they will continue to cook as they cool.

Recipe from The You Are What You Are Cookbook (£7.99, Accent Press). All profits from this book go to support Beds Garden Carers – a charity for adults with learning disabilities. For more info, visit www.bedsgardencarers.org.uk or call 01234 32887.

© adapted from a recipe by Nigella Lawson