Dark and White Chocolate Brownies

These brownies have become something of a Daylesford icon and they’re a staple at the bakery and in our farmshops. A crisp, sugary topping gives way to the soft, smooth dark chocolate filling which is contrasted with a lovely crunch from the shards of white chocolate that run through the middle. Decadent and rich, these are very hard to resist.

Ingredients

Serves: 4

FOR THE brownies:

4 eggs
150g caster sugar
150g demerara sugar
350g unsalted butter
350g good dark chocolate (at least 70% cocoa solids)
180g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
380g white chocolate buttons

Method

Preheat the oven to 160ºC/gas 3 and line a 30cm square cake tin (or equivalent) with baking paper.

In a bowl, whisk together the eggs and both sugars until thick.

Put the butter and dark chocolate into a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water (make sure the base doesn’t touch the water) and let the chocolate melt.

Let the chocolate cool a little, then add the beaten egg and sugar, and mix well. Gently fold in the flour, baking powder and vanilla extract and, when thoroughly combined, add the chocolate buttons and mix in gently.

Spoon into the prepared tin and bake in the oven for 20 minutes, making sure you don’t overbake the brownies. They need to stay quite soft and moist in the middle, so they should be springy to the touch and, if you insert a skewer into the centre, it should come out sticky, not clean, as you would expect with a cake.

Take out of the oven and allow to cool in the tin before turning out on to a board or clean work surface and cutting into squares.