Morish bites of luxury? Say no more. Whilst I fancy myself a pretty good baker, brownies have always been my Achilles’ heel. There’s always been that extra something to achieving the perfect texture that I have struggled with when it comes to brownies. This recipe, however, is the best one I have come across, and even I produced the perfect batch.
Ingredients
- 8 tablespoons (115 grams) unsalted butter
- 1 cup (190 grams) light or dark brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon flaky sea salt, or 1/4 teaspoon coarse sea salt
- 1 cup (130 grams) all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 cups mix-ins of your choice (my favourite: 1 cup chocolate chips plus 1/2 cup chopped toasted walnuts)

Instructions
- Heat oven to 180°C, or gas mark 4.
- Butter an 8×8-inch baking pan, or line the bottom and two sides of one with parchment paper, buttering the exposed parts.
- Melt butter in a small saucepan; I like to keep cooking it, stirring occasionally, until it becomes toasty and browned at the bottom and has an unbelievable aroma. It’s definitely worth the trouble here. Pour into a medium or large bowl and whisk in the sugar until smooth. At this point, it should be cooled to lukewarm, but if it’s not, let it rest for a few minutes until it is.
- Then whisk together: the egg, vanilla, and sea salt.
- Stir in flour and additions of your choice, I like to add walnuts.
- Scrape into prepared pan and smooth with a spatula; the batter is thick and will take some nudging.
- Top the batter with more flakes of sea salt, evenly sprinkled.
- Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until lightly browned at edges but looks a tiny bit underbaked. (I always err on the side of caution with baking times — nobody ever complained about a gooey-middle cookie.)
- Let brownies cool in pan, or just let them cool in it for 10 minutes and use the parchment sling to slide them onto a cutting board. Cut into 16 or more squares.
Leftover brownies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week.
*adapted from smitten kitchen
Thanks for the recipe. Came out perfectly.