Fudgy Chocolate Brownies {recipe}

Hello! How are we all today? Survived Monday? This afternoon was quite busy for me - shopping in town, Izzy's swimming lesson after school, cooking lots of vegetable lasagne, gym (for the 2nd time in 2 days!!) and now I'm sitting down to blog! So this post may be a bit of a quick one!

I thought I'd share with you my recipe for chocolate brownies. I've made these loads over the last few months - mainly for other people! The recipe is originally based on Averie's Fudgy Nutella Brownies, but I always feel a bit bad when I just link to that recipe as I've changed the recipe quite a bit each time I made it, so if you made Averie's brownies you wouldn't be making the same ones as me if that makes sense? I've perfected the recipe to mine (& my family's) liking now so hopefully you'll enjoy it! :)

Mini brownies for Mum's housewarming party

Chocolate Fudgy Brownies
(recipe adapted from Averie's Fudgy Nutella Brownies)
(makes 16 square brownies or 32 mini ones, as shown above)

• 115g dark chocolate. The quality of this doesn't really matter, but it does need to be dark or you'll end up with a crystallised sugary mess! I use Tesco's own 72% chocolate.
• 170g butter
• 400g caster sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 3 eggs
• 150g plain flour

1. Pre-heat the oven to 170C (150 fan). Prepare a square baking tin (mine is 20cm x 20cm ) by lining with foil and lightly spraying with baking spray (or melted butter/whatever your normal greasing method is).
2. Melt the chocolate and butter in the microwave. My microwave must be really weak as this takes several minutes and never burns, but make sure to keep an eye on it if you're microwave is more efficient.
3. Stir in the sugar and vanilla.
4. If mixture is quite hot, wait a minute or two to cool down. Although this step shouldn't  be necessary unless you've overheated the chocolate/butter.
5. Add the eggs and stir well.
6. Finally mix in the flour and pour the brownie batter into the prepared tin.
7. Bake for 30 minutes. Leave in tin for a couple of minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack. I seem to be able to let the brownies cool in the foil with no ill-effects, but if I cool them in the tin (which I only do if I'm making more than 2 batches as I run out of cooling space!) then they overcook.

8. Once the brownies are completely cool, peel off the foil and cut with a sharp knife.
9. Enjoy! :)

Lots of regular brownies over Christmas

Or leave the brownies uncut and serve them as a birthday cake, as we did for my little sister!

Chocolate fudgy deliciousness!!

As well as tasting amazing, I love that this recipe is so quick and easy to make - and you're only left with one bowl, a spoon and a knife to wash up at the end - bonus! The original recipe called for the oven temperature to be slightly higher than 170C, but I was finding that sometimes that brownies were coming out a little too cakey for my liking. At 170C they have always (touch wood!) been perfectly fudgy :)

What is your favourite type of baked good? Any favourite brownie recipes? I know Maria has a brownie recipe that looks great. I keep meaning to try it, but every time my family request brownies they are wanting the same ones I always make so I don't dare stray from the above recipe! If I were making them for me, I'd like to add raspberries into them as well, but my sisters and Liam love these with just plain, simple chocolateyness!