KJ’s Badass Chocolate Brownies

“This was the first thing I ever baked at the café. When we took over, we inherited an old gas oven that was pretty temperamental and awful for baking in. My badass brownie was perfected in that oven (with a lot of fails and swear words) and is now one of our best sellers. This will keep in an airtight container for up to five days. It won’t last that long though!” Makes 12 generous slices

340g dark chocolate, roughly chopped

250g butter

675g caster sugar

4 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

450g plain flour

25x20cm brownie tin

Preheat the oven to 170 deg C (150 deg C fan) / gas mark 3. Grease and line your tin. Put the chocolate and butter in a heavy-bottomed saucepan large enough to take all the ingredients. Place on a low heat until they’re fully melted with no lumps, stirring as they melt. Remove from the heat and leave to cool. Add the sugar, eggs and vanilla extract and beat really well with a wooden spoon until smooth and shiny. Sieve the flour and fold it in to get a very thick batter. Scrape it into the lined tin and smooth out with a spatula. Bake for 25min until the brownie is firm around the edges and still a little soft in the middle. Leave to cool in the tin at room temperature before cutting – we leave ours overnight to make sure we get a nice, clean-cut slice.