Chocolate Brownies with Sea Salt

Ingredients

• 3 large eggs
• 95 g plain flour, sifted
• 200 g caster sugar
• 50 g light brown sugar
• 175 g unsalted butter
• 200 g dark chocolate (min. 70% cocoa), chopped
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 30 g unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 tsp espresso powder (optional)
• 100 g chocolate chips
• 75 g walnuts, roughly chopped (optional)
• 1 pinch fine salt
• 1 tsp sea salt flakes

Method

1. Heat the oven to 170°C fan and line a 23cm square tin with baking paper, leaving a small overhang so you can lift the slab out cleanly later.
2. Melt the dark chocolate and butter together in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water, stirring occasionally for 4–5 minutes until smooth and glossy. Don't let the bowl touch the water; chocolate seizes the moment it overheats.
3. Lift off the heat and stir in both sugars with a good pinch of fine salt. The mixture will look grainy and thick at this point; that's right, the salt is there to lift the chocolate and stop the sweetness going flat.
4. Beat the eggs and vanilla together in a jug, then whisk briskly into the warm (not hot) chocolate mixture for about a minute until the batter turns shiny, ribbon-thick and slightly paler. Too hot and you'll scramble the eggs; too cool and it won't emulsify.
5. Sift the flour, cocoa and espresso powder (if using) over the top and fold through with a spatula until just combined; stop the moment you can't see flour streaks. Overworking develops gluten, and gluten in a brownie means cake, not fudge. Stir in the chocolate chips and walnuts with the same light hand.
6. Adjust with another small pinch if it falls flat against the sugar.
7. Scrape into the lined tin, level the surface and bake for 22–25 minutes. You're looking for set, slightly crisp edges with a faint wobble in the centre when you nudge the tin; that wobble is what gives you the fudgy middle. A skewer should come out with damp crumbs clinging, never clean.
8. Cool completely in the tin (at least an hour) for clean slices; cutting warm gives you a gooey mess and ragged edges. Lift out using the paper overhang, scatter generously with sea salt flakes so they catch and crackle on the glossy top, and cut into 12 squares.