Fudgy brownies are hard to master when baking them at home but it turns out there’s an easy way to ensure the flavour and texture are spot on.
Sharing a recipe from his BBC series James Martin: Home Comforts, chef James Martin revealed his secret ingredient for tantalisingly good brownies.
His “easy” recipe calls upon all the classic ingredients; dark chocolate, brown sugar, butter, eggs and flour, as well as one extra item.
The James Martin’s Saturday Morning host adds cherries to his double chocolate brownies for a “rich, fruity flavour”.
Describing the brownies as “decadent”, the chef makes the recipe even easier to follow by suggesting swapping fresh cherries for frozen ones. They’re often cheaper too.
James Martin’s brownie recipe
Ingredients
350g/12oz dark chocolate (minimum 55 percent cocoa solids)
250g/9oz unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing
Three large free-range eggs
250g/9oz dark soft brown sugar
110g/4oz plain flour
One tsp baking powder
150g/5½oz fresh cherries
150g/5½oz white chocolate
One to two tbsp cocoa powder, for dusting
Method
The secret to perfect brownies isn’t just in the recipe, but also in the cooking method. Start with a hot oven preheated to 170C/ 150C fan/ Gas 3 before preparing the tin.
Take a 30x23cm baking tin and grease it with butter before lining the base and sides with baking paper.
Now start adding the brownie ingredients in a saucepan over low heat. First, add the chopped plain chocolate then follow with the butter and stir gently until well combined.
Remove from the heat and set aside to cool for five minutes. Meanwhile, take a large mixing bowl and whisk the eggs with brown sugar to form a thick, pale, creamy mixture.
Whisk in the cooled chocolate and butter mixture then gently fold the flour through along with the baking powder. Remove the stones from the fresh cherries and chop them in half before adding half of the cherries to the mixture, stirring gently until combined.
If using frozen cherries, James recommended defrosting them first and then draining any excess liquid before mixing them into the bowl. He warned: “They are likely to be wetter than fresh cherries, so you may need to cook your brownies for a little longer.”
Spoon the chocolate cherry brownie mixture into the prepared tin, then roughly chop the white chocolate and scatter over the top with the remaining cherries.
Bake the brownies in the oven for 25-30 minutes or until the surface is cracked and a skewer comes out with just a small amount of mixture stuck to it when inserted.
Remove the brownies from the oven and set aside to cool completely in the tin on a wire rack. To serve, dust the brownies with cocoa powder before cutting them into squares.
