Chocolate brownies are synonymous to chocolate, and I hope you agree. This recipe makes brownies cakey rather than gooey, which makes them excellent for when I need a pick me up in the afternoon. Pour yourself a cup of hot tea (or coffee if that’s your preference) and take a bite of this decadent chocolate treat.

I’m going to confess now: I am not a huge chocolate person (please don’t hurt me).

Now, in saying that, it’s not like I don’t appreciate or eat chocolate. I actually consume a lot of chocolate for someone who isn’t a huge fan. Chocolate is productivity food to me. It’s probably a habit I built up in university, I associate writer’s block with lack of chocolate. Stumbling across brownies recipes has been a game changer for me. Chocolate intake without the fear of melting in my hands. Perfect.  

I’ve heard (and maybe you have too) that chocolate has a chemical that emulates falling in love. Now, I can’t verify that (nor am I going to look it up), so I’m going to go with it being true. Rather than falling in love with anyone, I’ve fallen in love with these brownies. I started baking brownies a while ago and have gone through numerous recipes before finally resolving to just adjust and experiment till I was happy. I’ve finally stumbled my way into a happy combination of ingredients for a delicious and cakey brownie (sorry if you like them gooey).

I made some substitutions and adjustments, including adding chilli flakes (optional) and flaxseeds. The chilli flakes came about when I was going through a spicy phase. Again, Food Network is probably inspirational in all the wrong ways, but I was watching it and someone said something about chilis and chocolates and it struck a chord with me. So, we played with different amounts of chili flakes and went from there. The amount in the recipe is for people who prefer spicy foods, as proven by the spicy eaters in our lives. The NSSSO and I don’t hold spiciness well, so we scaled down the chilli flakes for ourselves.

The flaxseeds came about one day when I ran out of eggs (as well as some misreading). Apparently, three tablespoons of ground flaxseeds with one tablespoon of water makes an excellent substitute for eggs or fat. Super helpful when I was short an egg, not so great when I tried to replace the oil in the recipe with it. Ironically, they were the oiliest brownies I’ve ever made. Not likely to mitigate all the other guilty feelings you’d get eating a brownie, but flaxseeds are high in fiber, which is something we apparently never get enough of.

This recipe, instead of using all whole eggs, substitutes two eggs with two egg whites instead. This change was, first and foremost, an experiment. If you haven’t noticed by now, I spent a lot of time trying to make this recipe healthier. Whether or not I succeeded is a whole other matter, but at least it didn’t take away from the texture and the taste of the brownies.

The NSSSO jokes that I’m trying to do the impossible as I make these adjustments. Jokes on him, he loves these brownies.

As per always, if you have all your ingredients measured out and ready to go, the process will be much smoother.

We begin with preheating your oven to 325° and prepping your baking pan. I have one traditional metal square baking pan and corning wares in two different sizes. In a pinch (or when I’m lazy) I line the corning ware with parchment paper and bake my brownies in that. Whichever pan you decide to use, remember to either grease it or lay down parchment paper. I’m a parchment paper fan as I hate doing dishes, but you do you!

Whisk the flour, cocoa powder, salt, and sugar until combined. This is what we call the dry ingredients.

Once that is done, add the wet ingredients, aka the oil, eggs, and vanilla. This is also the time for the optional ingredients of chili flakes and flax seeds. Mix, mix, and mix. The oil that I use is regular cooking oil. You want to use something that has virtually no taste so that it doesn’t affect the brownies’ flavour, aka no olive oil.

You’ll know the mix is ready when the batter becomes dense and glossy.

Scrape the batter into your prepared pan then it’s into the oven for 40 to 45 minutes. If the batter is too dense you can add another egg. If it’s too wet and loose, add more flour slowly.

Remove from oven and check with a toothpick. If the toothpick comes out clean (minimal amounts of crumb clinging to it), you’ve got lovely brownies.

Store in an airtight container and it should last you a week. Don’t leave it out in the open too long, it’ll get stale much faster that way.

Delicious Chocolate Brownies

Recipe by Curiosity to the OvenCourse: Baking, SnacksDifficulty: Easy

Servings

1

serving

Prep time

10

minutes

Baking time

45

minutes

Ingredients

• 160g Flour

• 75g Cocoa Powder

• ½ TSP Salt

• 290g Sugar

• 177ml Oil

• 2 Eggs

• 2 Egg Whites

• 1TBSP Vanilla

• 1 TBSP Ground Flaxseeds

• ½ TBSP Chilli Flakes (Optional)

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 325° and prepare a pan for the brownies. You can either grease it or line it with parchment paper.
• Mix together 160g flour, 75g cocoa powder, ½ TSP salt, and 290g sugar.
• Once your dry ingredients are mixed together, add in 177ml oil, two (2) eggs, two (2) egg whites, and one (1) TBSP vanilla. Add the one (1) TBSP of ground flaxseeds. Now would also be the best time to add in the optional ½ TBSP chilli flakes. If you opt out of using the chili flakes, then mix until dense and glossy. If the batter is too dense you can add another egg. If it’s too wet and loose, add more flour slowly.
• Scrape batter into prepared pan and bake for 40-45 minutes.
• Remove from oven and cool for 5 minutes before moving to cooling rack. Store in an airtight container for optimal freshness, should last about a week.