The best chocolate brownies in the world

I've never had much success with making chocolate brownies, but when I saw this post on Jen's blog, I was tempted to have another go.  After all, how could anyone resist something billed as the best chocolate brownies in the world?  I have to confess that I am rather sceptical when someone claims to have discovered the best anything in the world (it always makes me think of this scene in the film Elf), but I've been reading Jen's lovely blog for some time now and I suspected she wouldn't let me down.

And oh boy - she didn't!  These really are quite amazing chocolate brownies! They're moist in the middle, firm on the top and are deliciously moreish.  And so incredibly easy to make - nothing more complicated than a fork for mixing it all together.  Whether you think you might agree that these really are the best chocolate brownies in the world or not, I would strongly recommend that you try them out because they're well worth the effort.  I've actually made them twice now in the space of a week or so which should tell you something!

I'm not going to repeat Jen's recipe because you can get it from here, but I have got a couple of things to add:

1     I used a bag of chocolate drops as part of the total weight of chocolate but I didn't melt them in with the rest of the chocolate, I just stirred them in at the end.  White chocolate drops are a lovely contrast with the dark chocolate of the brownie.

2      Jen suggests using a mixture of dark and milk chocolate, brown and white sugar and that's what I did too; it worked very well.

3     When you melt the chocolate and butter together, use a LARGE bowl or it all spills over and makes a dreadful mess.  You don't need to know how I know this (or how long it took to clean up), just rest assured that in my quest to bring you a scientifically researched post, I have tried out various options and a LARGE bowl makes for a much happier experience all round.

4     My baking tin is 18cm x 27cm although I may well experiment with other sizes in the future, and yes, the greaseproof paper is an essential requirement.

5     I cook on an Aga so for anyone doing the same, I suggest putting the baking tin on the grid shelf on the bottom set of runners with the cold shelf on the second set of runners.  I cooked my brownies for about 30 minutes, although I'd recommend keeping an eye on them so that they don't burn. 

I think it's always a good indication of how well a cake has turned out by how long it lasts in the tin.  By the next morning there were only crumbs left, so I can't give you any clues as to it's keeping quality, but it's clear that it turned out very well indeed and there wasn't any wasted - and that's a good thing, wouldn't you agree? J