Borough Market Brownie Promise...

I’m starting to think that Brownies have actualmagicalpowers - chocolate brownies that is, not those mustard and culotte clad girl scouts. But seriously, when made properly chocolate brownies are gooey, chocolatey, moreish, and make you want to climb into the middle of the pan and eat your way out. That’s not a metaphor, you could actually eat your way through the entire pan before you felt even slightly sick, or guilty, or both.  And Borough Market Brownies are the finest example of a brownie that we have experienced, so obviously we wanted to recreate them.

Previously on 45 Baker Street, brownies have ended up dry, flat, have that nasty burnt sugary topping, and generally unsatisfying after the Borough Market Brownie Experience. So we went right to the source and grabbed this recipe.

This will create the most awesome brownies you will ever eat, but there is a very simple reason why: it doesn’t skimp on anything. We had a look at a couple of other recipes and found that the main reason these brownies are so good is because they are chock full of everything you shouldn’t eat at such high quantities. Check out the ingredients...not for the calorie conscious.

The original recipe calls for 400g of dark chocolate  (55% cocoa solids) but we lightened it up with a half milk, half dark combo, with our dark chocolate having 70% cocoa solids and were not disappointed.



So, here we go:

just a teeny bit of butter

200g milk chocolate
200g dark chocolate (70% cocoa)
325g unsalted butter

6 whole eggs
2 egg yolks
300g caster sugar

50g cocoa powder
80g plain flour

1. Pre heat your oven to gas mark 4/180C/160C - fan assisted and grease and line your tin.We went for a 29cm x 19cm brownie pan that's 3cm deep. If we'd have had 2 it would have been ideal. We don't, so we made one lovely brownie pan and one Brownie loaf. Basically it makes a lot of brownies, so if you don't need 20 generous portions, halve the quantities. The original recipe says it only makes 12, but they are really deep.

2. You need to melt the chocolate and butter in a bowl over a pan of gently simmering water. Make sure the bottom of the bowl isn't touching the surface of the water. There is a lot of butter and chocolate to melt so don't rush it, the slower the better. It's important to keep stirring as it melts to make sure it's well incorporated, otherwise you will end up with a weird buttery marbling on the chocolate. It's easier to use a spatula rather than a wooden spoon, you can get to the chocolate on the sides of the bowl. Once it has completely melted take the bowl off the water but don't throw the water away! Keep stirring the chocolate once it comes off the heat to help it cool down as slowly as you heated it up. This is worth the extra time it takes, your chocolate will be smooth, glossy, and more manageable and the batter will have a better consistency.


3. The next step is mixing all those eggs and the sugar. Fresh eggs are best for this recipe. Put them all together in a bowl on top of the same pan of water that you used to melt the chocolate. Do not keep it on the heat unless you want sweet scrambled eggs (trust us, you don't), so the time it takes for your chocolate to cool will get your water to a perfect temperature. Beating the eggs and sugar together over the hot water makes a really pale and creamy mixture. When you lift your whisk out of the bowl you should be able to see a ribbon of mixture falling on the surface that shouldn't stay for too long. This is technically called 'ribboning' and fills the mixture with air. 

beating the eggs and sugar

4.  Add the chocolate to your eggs and not the other way around - you don't want to move the eggs and sugar mixture around too much and knock out all the air you just painstakingly beat into it. Fold in the chocolate, again take your sweet time with this, air is a brownie's best friend. Make sure you get your spatula right down to the bottom of the bowl because the chocolate is a fat bastard and will sink. You won't be completely combining these two at this point, it's just so that the flour doesn't stick to the chocolate when you add that.

ready for the oven

5. Sieve the cocoa powder and the plain flour together and then sieve that dry mixture again into the vat of chocolatey goodness. Slowly slowly fold until it all comes together. This smells fucking delicious and you will want to eat it all raw. We aren't going to tell you not to do that...

...because that's exactly what we did

6. When you've conquered all those temptations to put your face in the mixing bowl, divide the mixture between your tins, stick them in the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes. We added extra cooking time because they are so gooey. You can tell they're ready when they rise up round the edges of the pan so they should be spongy at the sides and in the centre there will be a crust but it wont feel like sponge cake. If you test it with a skewer and it comes out like batter they aren't there yet, it should stick to the skewer. But cook them to taste. If you like them really gooey, then cook them for a shorter amount of time. If you like them firmer, let them completely cool before you eat them.

get in my belly

These were hugely successful and didn't last very long.  It looks really complicated when you glance at the method but it's so straightforward that after you've done it once you can do it with your eyes closed.

I brownie promise that I will do my best not to eat them all...