Nigella Lawson Chocolate Brownies: Gillians Kitchen (2024)

Nigella Lawson Chocolate Brownies

Quite possibly the only brownie recipe you will ever need, Nigella Lawson Chocolate Brownies, from her gorgeous bake book,How to be a Domestic Goddess. My kids ask forthese everybirthday,which is lucky for me as I’m pretty rubbish atfancy cake decorating, and means we havethem at least four times a year. Clearly we have them more often. School bake sales call for chocolate brownies all the time, make a batch and keep half for yourself. They freeze well so you can pop them into packed lunches as a special Friday treats with minimal fuss.

Simple;Decadent;Rich;Gooey;Heaven!

It was another dark, miserable, day in Hong Kong. Into our secondweek of torrential rain, with over 100% humidity, the streets had turnedto rivers and cicadas were dropping from the trees into my backyard like dead flies. My kitchen was dark, dampand muggy. We all needed cheering up! On went the oven, on went the air-con and suddenly everything was alright with the world once again…. isn’t it amazing how CHOCOLATE can lift the spirits!

I normally use a darkValrhona chocolate with minimum70% cocoa solids, which I buy by the kilo at Twins Co. (a bakery wholesaler in deepest Wanchai). I haven’t been over recently and I had totally run out due totheEaster time baking madness, that this time I used Green & Blacks (70% cocoa). If you do get chance to visitTwins Coyou shouldtake a cool bag and stock up on butter too, probably half the price of your local supermarket. The website is rubbish so here is the address, just get yourself down there and see for yourself.

Nigella Lawson Chocolate Brownies

Melt your butter and good qualitychocolate in a thick based pan. Keep stirring and don’t overheat. Set aside and let cool whilst you prepare the rest of the ingredients. You can’t go wrong as long as you use the best quality chocolate you can get your hands on. I generally use 65% or 70% cacao. Green & Blacks, Lint or Valhrona are all excellent!

While your chocolate is cooling beat thesugar with the eggs and vanilla extract. Measure your flour and salt into another bowl and set aside.

Once the chocolate and butter has cooled slightly add to the beaten sugar and eggs and then sift in the flour, salt and nuts (if using).

Once your mixture is well combined, pour out into the prepared tin.

Bake for about 25-35 minutes depending on how gooey you like them. Mine always take longer than 25 minutes and still come out exceptionally gooey. For the last 5 minutes of baking I’m there with a wooden or metal skewer testing until I think the correct amount of gooey has been achieved.

When cooked the top should have a dry, pale crust, but the middle should still be slightly gooey. The mixture carries on cooking once out the oven so I err on the side of caution and remove earlier rather than later. A gooey chocolate brownie is alwaysbetter received than a dry, overcooked, chocolate brownie. The goo will set once refrigerated, so my kids like to zap them in the microwave for ten seconds before eating after dinner.

Cut into smallbite sized squares. They are very rich, so one or two squares is quite enough for one serving!

This Nigella Lawson Chocolate Brownies recipe yields 48 brownies but the most I’d managed until now is 40. However, I just found out if you cut really, really small, you can get70 little squares, which is ideal if you’re going on a picnic and have many little and big mouths to please!

This recipe was recently updated with some fabulous shots taken by my friend Phil atSalt Photographyand I experimented by throwing in a bag of maltesers on this bake.

If you try this recipe, let meknow what you think! Leave a comment, you can even rate the recipe and don’t forget to tag yourpictures#gillianskitchendotcomon Instagram so I can see your creations. Thank you!