Everyone has their own favourite brownie recipe. This is mine - dense, moist brownies, with a delicious chocolatey flavour. With lots of dark chocolate, and just a little bit of unsweetened cocoa powder, it really is a chocolate dream. But it gets even better - these brownies are stuffed with candy bars! I used a mix of our favourites - chocolate covered hazelnut bars.
You can use whatever candy bars you like, just make sure they aren't too soft, because they might melt into the brownies. That might not be an altogether bad thing, to be honest. Come to think of it, these would be fantastic with say a Jaffa brownie candy bar. Really, the possibilities are limitless. Just make sure you use the exact amount of flour and as few strokes as possible when folding it in, just to make sure they stay moist and dense.
Ingredients
300 grams dark chocolate
150 grams butter
200 grams granulated sugar
4 medium eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
100 grams plain flour
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
6-8 candy bars (to fit the pan)
Preparation
Take a heavy-bottomed saucepan, add in the diced butter, and the chopped up chocolate, and melt everything over medium heat, until smooth. Make sure the heat isn't high, and everything melts slowly. Once the chocolate is melted, remove it from the heat and add in the sugar. Whisk until the sugar dissolves, then whisk in the vanilla bean paste. Take a small dish to crack the eggs in, then add them to the batter, one at a time, whisking well after each. Whisk really quickly after adding the eggs, to make sure the eggs do not scorch. Once the eggs are added, add the sifted flour and cocoa powder, and fold them in with as few strokes as possible.
Grease a 23x30 (9x13") pan's bottom and sides, add a piece of baking paper in the bottom of the pan, and pour in half of the batter. Arrange the candy bars so the whole surface of the brownies is covered, then pour over the remaining batter. Bake them in a preheated oven, at 180°C (350°F) for about 18-20 minutes. Check them with a toothpick to make sure they are baked, but not dry. Make sure you do not poke through a candy bar. Remove from the oven, and let them cool in the pan. When they cool completely, slice them into squares and serve. Yields 16 servings.