Lola’s Kitchen: Brownies Recipe

Posted June 26, 2015 by Lola in Lola's Kitchen / 18 Comments

Lola’s Kitchen is a feature on Lola’s Reviews where I talk about all things related to food, cooking and baking. These posts can be recipe posts or more discussion type posts about food. I love cooking and spend some time in the kitchen almost every day, so I wanted to give it a place on my blog as well. The banner for this feature is designed by Michelle from Limabean Design.

I love brownies, but for some reason it took me a long time before I finally gave them a try to make from scratch. I always assumed it would be complex, but I messed up once or twice during this recipe, it’s pretty simple. It only reguires a few ingredients and some patience as you wait for the brownies to bake in the oven. And I absolutely love these brownies, they are the best fresh from the oven while they are still warm. They have a rich chocolate flavour and have a soft structure.
This recipe was based on The Blonde Buckeye her recipe of Buckeye Brownies.
Brownie

Ingredients

  • Chocolate Chips – 300 gram/ 2 1/2 cup/ 10 ounces
  • Butter – 115 gram/ 1/2 cup
  • Sugar – 201 gram/ 1 cup
  • Flour – 96 gram/ 3/4 cup
  • Eggs – 3
  • Vanilla Extract – 1 teaspoon
  • Salt – a pinch

You can use some extra flour to get them more cake like and less chewy on the inside. I usually use between 96-120gram flour.
Brownies Ingredients

Method

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees celcius/ 356 degrees fahrenheit.
  2. The first step is to melt the chocolate and butter. I recommend melting these in seperate bowl as sometimes when I melt them in the same bowl it goes wrong and get’s a weird structure. You can either melt it au bain marie, with a pan of boiling water and above that another pan with the chocolate or butter. Or you can put a bowl with chocolate in the microwave for 30 seconds, then stir and then again 20 seconds and repeat that until it’s molten. For the butter putting it in the microwave for only 30 seconds is usually enough.
  3. Now mix the butter with the sugar. Once it’s well mixed, add the chocolate and mix a bit longer.
  4. Now add the eggs, vanilla extract and a pinch of salt. Mix for a few minutes.
  5. Then add the flour and mix until combined.
  6. Lightly grease an oven proof baking dish, or put some greaseproof paper in the dish. The broader the dish, the flatter the brownies will be, while with a smaller dish the bornwies will be thicker. Either works, although if the brownies are thicker the baking time will be a bit longer.
  7. Pour the batter in the baking dish.
  8. Put the baking dish into the oven and bake for about 40 minutes. To test of the brownies are right use a toothprick or a cake tester, it should come out clean and with only a few crumbs attached. If it’s still fluid, bake for another 5 minutes and test again, repeat until the tester comes out clean.
  9. Let them cool down for a few minutes, then slice them in pieces and enjoy!

Pictures

Chocolate!

Chocolate

Molten Chocolate

Molten chocolate

Soft butter and sugar

Sugar and butter

Adding the molten chocolate after mixing the butter and sugar

Adding the molten chocolate

After mixing

After mixing the chocolate

Add the egg, salt and vanilla essence

Add the egg, salt and vanilla

Here’s what it looks like after mixing

After mixing the egg

Now it’s time to add the last ingredient, the flour

Adding the flour

Brownie batter complete!

Brownies batter

Brownies before oven

Brownies before going in the oven

Brownie after oven

Brownies

Variation Tips

  • Buckeye Brownies. You can add some ingredients and transform these to buckeye brownies like The Blonde Buckeye her recipe of Buckeye Brownies. After the brownies have cooled down make the peanut buttercream, for this you need butter (115 gram/ 1/2 cup), peanut butter (230 gram/ 1 cup), powdered sugar (300 gram/ 2 1/5 cups), vanilla extract (1 teaspoon), milk/ water or whipped cream (1 – 2 tablespoons)and a pinch of salt. Mix the peanut butter and butter, then add the powdered sugar and mix well. Then add the remaining ingredients. Spread the buttercream over the brownies and then start making the glaze. For the glaze you need chocolate chips (152 gram/ 1 cup) and peanut butter (60 gram/ 1/4 cup). Melt the chocolate and then mix with the peanut butter, pur the glaze over the brownies with butttercream and try to smooth the top. Let the brownies cool down for a bit or put them in the fridge before cutting them into pieces and eating them.
  • White chocolate topping. After the brownies have cooled down, melt some white chocolate, about 150 gram/ 1 cup and mix with a bit of whipped cream or butter and put that on top of the brownies. Let cool down or put in the fridge for a little while before slicing the brownies in pieces.
  • Brownies with chocolate chips. Before step 7 add about 200 gram/ 1 1/2 cup chocolate chips to the batter and stir well.
  • Brownies with chocolate topping/ glaze. Use a chocolate topping on top of the brownies and let them cool down completely before cutting into pieces. For example check out the glaze recipe of Recipe Girl. Another option is to melt some butter and combine it with either some butter or whipped creams, so it won’t get too hard when it cools down and put that on top. Or use the glaze recipe of the buckeye brownies.

What’s your favourite cookie/ cake etc with chocolate?

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18 responses to “Lola’s Kitchen: Brownies Recipe

    • I tried the buckeye type at first and while I liked them, I am just not patient enough to wait till they cool down and then have to make the peanut butter and topping as well. Oh do make sure not to make the peanut butter layer too thick as else they get a bit too heavy on the stomach. The chocolate and peanut butter combination works really well though. I am just too impatient to make them usually and just go for normal brownies.

  1. Brownies are my favorite. I could probably eat them every single day and not get tired of them. I always thought they were a lot more complicated to make from scratch than this! But I don’t think I’d ever try, because I have my favorite boxed brand and I really really really love them and no other brownies (even fancy ones from a bakery) don’t come close. Which is probably weird, because usually fresh made are better than a mix, but NOT TO ME! I love my boxed brownies with walnuts. 😛
    Angie F. recently posted…Chick Flick Friday: Becoming JaneMy Profile

    • I agree they sound more difficult to make from scratch. I always though they were more difficult to make until I gave it a try. I like these better than the boxed brands we have here, they just aren’t as good as homemade ones.
      I am really curious about your boxed brand brownies if they are better than the other brownies you have eaten they must be very good. Sounds like the best of both world, delicious brownies from a box :). While I like to try and make things from scratch, sometimes it’s just handy to make things from a box, it’s quicker, eays and they hardly ever fail.
      Lola recently posted…Lola’s Kitchen: Brownies RecipeMy Profile

    • Oh I will have to try that next time, warming them up in the microwave! I don’t know why I never thought of that before. I prefer my brownies warm, even though they are also good when cooled down.
      I hope you will feel better soon!

  2. I love brownies, especially with vanilla ice cream, especially home made. I have only a couple recipes I have tried, I just might have to try this one out. My favorite chocolate desert to bake is Mocha Pudding Cake. Its a chocolate cake with a chocolate sauce in the middle of it. Very rich but sooo yummy!!!
    Renee (@Addictofromance) recently posted…Addicted To Romance Is On The Move!!My Profile

    • I am actually making brownies today as I wanted to make them after taling about them on the blog. Oh that Mocha Pudding Cake sounds really good!

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