Ultimate Brownies

I've found Nirvana. Not the band. (I found the band quite a long time ago.)
I've found brownie Nirvana. Proper dense, fudge-y, no messing, gooey brownies. Now I've not got much of a sweet tooth, I love chocolate and sweets, but to be honest, cake is something that happens with tea at 4pm if I've got company. I do however make an odd exception. And a good gooey brownie is one of them.
Brownies are currently fuelling my PhD, my word count and waistline are expanding under their influence. But with all this brownie munching, I thought it was about time I put the effort into sorting the ultimate brownie.
The following recipe is based on Nigel Slater's recipe from The Observer in 2004. With some additions and deviations of my own.
First things first though. Don't mess about with nuts. Seriously, fucking nuts in a gooey brownie, I don't want crunch, I want gooey chew.
Secondly, I know two packets of Rolos seems excessive, but honestly, by the time you've eaten a sneaky couple out of the packet whilst you chop, you need two packets. And the more you put in, the chewier the brownie.

2 Packs of Rolos, chopped into quarters. (Yes, laborious, yes, worth it.)
300g sugar
250g butter (melted)
200g dark chocolate (melted)
50g chocolate (any, white makes a nice change) chopped into small bits.
3 large eggs plus 1 extra egg yolk (beaten)
50g flour
70g finest quality cocoa powder
½ tsp baking powder



Warm the oven to 180°C.

Line a roasting tin with grease proof paper. Leave some paper up the sides of the tin you can use to lift the brownies out with after cooking. You need to line the tin, these are wet brownies, and don't come out of the tin easily.

Melt the butter, and mix it up with the sugar. Don't arse about with beating the sugar into hard butter, just melt it. It makes things gooier!

Then it is as simple as chucking all the other ingredients into the bowl, finishing with the chocolate chunks and chopped Rolos. Mix everything together well.

Chuck it into the oven for about 30 mins. The brownie will fail the cake test, a skewer won't come out clean. What you are looking for is a cracked top, and a middle that isn't totally liquid.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool. As the brownie cools it shrinks a little and gets gooier. They are lovely warm, or cold. Really chewy.

As Nigel suggests they are good festival fodder , you should get 16 small ish brownies out of this mix.

Enjoy, and thank me later.