chocolate brownies.

What better to do on the first Sunday of spring than to bake some brownies? I have this thing where I hate eating brownies with nuts in them, so I tweaked a recipe I found many years ago and replaced it with a nice ganache centre :)

NOTE: This is a recipe to make 16 HUGE pieces of brownies in a 2.8L Pyrex dish

INGREDIENTS:

• 750g dark chocolate - I use Nestle Cooking Chocolate Melts (2 bags)
• 250g butter
• ½ cup sour cream - I like to use lite, just to keep it semi "healthy"
• 300ml thickened cream
• 4 eggs - lol, I forgot to photograph the eggs...
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 cup plain flour
• 1 cup self raising flour
• 1 tablespoon cocoa powder (optional)

METHOD:

Part 1 - Ganache

1. Preheat oven to 180˚C
2. Melt 300g of dark chocolate in a metal bowl over boiling pot of water - keep stirring to prevent burning the chocolate
3. Once chocolate is completely melted take bowl off the stove and quickly pour in and stir the thickened cream before the chocolate begins to set
4. At this point if you want you can add the cocoa powder
5. Now you've made the ganache - pour it in a bowl and set it aside.

Part 2 - Brownie Mix

1. Melt remaining chocolate and butter in the same metal bowl (I only have metal bowl, but also saves on cleaning afterwards!) - once again, keep stirring to prevent the chocolate from burning
2. Once the chocolate and butter has completely melted and the mixture is silky smooth and shiny take the bowl off the stove and mix in brown sugar - best to do this while the chocolate and butter is still hot so the sugar dissolves nicely into the mixture
3. Now sift in the plain and self raising flour into the chocolate mixture - because there is so much flour, I sift it in in 2-3 lots, mixing it in completely between lots
4. By the last lot of flour the mixture will be quite dry, mix in all 4 eggs - you can lightly beat the eggs before pouring them in, but I find no real difference [little note on cracking eggs, do it on a flat surface to prevent shells getting in your mixture]
5. Now mix in sour cream - this seems like a weird ingredient, but trust me it works!
6. Pour enough mixture to just line the bottom of your baking tray
7. Pour the ganache on top of the base
8. Now pour the remaining brownie mixture on top of the ganache - the ganache may still be very wet and the brownie will begin to sink it, if that's the case try to mix the brownie and the ganache evenly, this way the ganache won't burn when you bake it
9. Stick tray into the oven for approximately 20-30 minutes - don't bother with the skewer test as the ganache will still be VERY wet
10. Stick the tray into the fridge to set the ganache
11. VOILA! I love to serve it with Connoisseur's Cookies & Cream Ice-Cream :)

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