Gemma's Better-Than-Boxed Brownies

So I have a love hate relationship with box brownies as you can imagine. I hate that they're from a box but I love how you get the most fudgiest crinkle top brownie every single time you bake them. So my solution is I'm going to show you how you can make a better than box brownie at home super easy recipe and I'm going to walk you through it. So in a nice big bowl we're going to add in our butter. So now I get asked a lot do I use salted or unsalted butter when it comes to baking. I always use salted because I love that extra bit of flavor but honestly it's preference it's totally up to you. So do what you like but honestly salted is the best. Now let's talk chocolate really important here for a brownie. I use bittersweet chocolate 72% the perfect balance of sweet and that sharp kind of bitterness that really deep cocoa. So definitely go for something a bit darker. Okay lovely now all you want to do is melt these two ingredients together. You can do that in the microwave carefully or you can do it over a bain marie. So this mix is lovely and melty now into this we're going to add in our sugars. So here I have my white sugar and I have some brown sugar. Now I actually ran out of brown sugar yesterday so I made my own and it's really simple just with molasses or treacle and white sugar you just mix them all together. Brown sugar in a brownie I think is really important because it gives you kind of those caramel tones. Next we're going to add in a nice big generous tablespoon of vanilla extract. I use my homemade one. So another important ingredient in our brownies to complement the vanilla is salt. So here I have some sea salt. I've started baking a lot with this recently because you get nice chunks of salt. So now usually I would add this in with the flour but I like to add it into this base mix so that it dissolves and you get a lovely salty bite throughout your whole brownie. That's something that I've started experimenting with recently and I think it works really well. So just give those a mix up. Okay lovely now I'm just going to move this over to the side and I'm going to crack my eggs into a separate jug. So you just want to beat up your eggs beforehand in a separate jug and then we're going to add it straight into our brownie mix. And what you want to do here this is kind of the secret is you don't want to overmix your eggs once they go into the batter because if you do that they can end up kind of cakey you really want to under mix your eggs. So you beat them up in the jug first and then kind of just very lightly fold them into your mix then just stop once they're all in there. Lovely. So now we're almost there into this we are going to sift in our flour and our cocoa powder. Okay then with a spatula or with a whisk just fold in your dry ingredients. So you will notice I don't have any raising agent in here and that's very common in brownies that's how they end up lovely and fudgy. So I have some recipes that have and some recipes that don't. Now I do have a lot of brownie recipes on BiggerBolderBaking.com where you can find this recipe but these brownies are the closest thing that I have come to a boxed brownie. Okay so the last thing we're going to add in here are some chocolate chunks. Just fold those in. I'm going to reserve a little bit to sprinkle on the top. Lovely. There's our batter. Looking good so far. Look at that. So let's get it into our tin. So pour your batter into your prepared eight by eight inch pan. Classic brownie size. And then with your leftover chocolate chunks give them a nice big sprinkle over the top. Lovely jubbly. And we are ready for the oven. Bake your brownies off at 350 degrees Fahrenheit or 180 degrees Celsius for roughly 30 to 35 minutes. Take care not to over bake them because you want that ooey gooey fudgy center. So you can tell when your brownies are perfectly baked when they're a little bit firm around the outside. And if you push in the middle they're still soft because as they cool down that fudgy center will set and firm up. So I'm not known around here for my patience when it comes to letting desserts cool so I'm just going to dig in while it's nice and warm and all that chocolate is so melty. And of course I'm going to need my chief taste tester. And I smelled these cooking all day so I've got to give these a try too. I cut it into a small bit and this is what I got. Well Gem they're huge giant chunks and they're amazing. Oh my gosh. I'm no stranger to box brownies and these are awesome Gem. You don't need to buy them anymore. No I do. I do like a box brownie. I will admit that. But these are absolutely gorgeous and straight warm from the oven. There was so much flavor. They're a little bit salty with a vanilla in there also. Gorgeous. That's my ice cream. There's your dessert. Definitely try these out. They're going to be a fan favorite for sure. We'll see you back again really soon. Thanks guys. Oh my gosh. They're just so decadent. I know. I want another.