One of the best brownies I've ever eaten, with a dense, fudgy centre and crisp, crackled top. Rye flour lends a lovely nuttiness while a sprinkle of sea salt heightens the flavour. Serve warm with cold vanilla ice cream or allow to cool and enjoy in small squares with a cup of tea. These brownies also freeze well if you don't think you'll get through the whole batch of sixteen in a few days (although I promise, you will).
Ingredients
150g (unsalted butter, cut into small pieces, plus more for greasing
300g dark chocolate, broken into pieces
50g cocoa powder
200g whole grain rye flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon flaky sea salt, plus more for sprinkling
200g golden caster sugar
200g light muscovado sugar
4 medium eggs
1 tbsp vanilla extract
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C/160 C fan. Grease a 23cm square baking pan and line with parchment paper.
In a heatproof bowl, melt together the butter and the chocolate over a pan of water that’s been brought to a boil and then taken off the heat. Allow the mixture to rest, stirring occasionally as it melts.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the cocoa, flour, baking powder and salt.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk together the sugars, eggs and vanilla until light and fluffy. Slowly add the melted chooolate, followed by the dry ingredients. Mix just enough to combine then pour into the prepared baking pan and sprinkle with salt.
Bake for 20-25 minutes (mine took 20), until the brownies are set but with a slight wobble. Leave to cool completely in the pan before slicing into squares.
Notes
Recipe taken from The Violet Bakery Cookbook by Claire Ptak. The only alternations I made were to omit the walnuts and bake in a 23cm square pan rather than a 20 x 30cm pan.
Recipe by thelittleloaf at http://www.thelittleloaf.com/2015/11/30/claire-ptaks-rye-chocolate-brownies/