duncan's brownie

340g (12oz) butter or margarine
18T cocoa/an entire 125g tin cocoa
1.5c self-raising flour
    or 1.5c flour and 1.5t baking powder
1/4 t salt
200g dark chocolate (known as “plain” chocolate in the UK)
6 eggs
3c sugar
3t vanilla

Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F or Gas Mark 6). Grease a roasting pan and line the bottom with baking paper.

In a saucepan, melt the butter or margarine, sifting in the cocoa and mixing well. Once fully melted and mixed remove from heat and allow to begin to cool.

Sift flour, baking powder, and salt into your largest mixing bowl. Then in another bowl mix sugar, eggs and vanilla. Combine the egg mixture with the dry ingredients, again mixing well.

Take 170g of the 200g of chocolate, cutting it with a heavy chef's knife to break each square into about two to three pieces. Place these pieces into the large bowl with the combined egg and flour mixture. Eat 15g of the remaining chocolate. Add the cocoa mixture to the large bowl, folding the ingredients together sufficiently to fully combine without over-mixing. Pour into the prepared roasting pan, spreading the thick mixture across the pan at the desired depth of the final Brownie.

Bake at the very top of a 180°C oven for 10 minutes to give a crunchier top, then moving the Brownie down to the middle of the oven for a further 15—25 minutes. Cook until there is no moist mixture when the Brownie is probed but before the sides begin to blacken. (Beware of being fooled by melted chocolate chunks when probing.)

When cooked remove from oven and allow to initially cool in roasting dish for five minutes. At that point, turn out Brownie onto a cooling rack. Resist temptation to eat first slice immediately while it is still hot, as you know you will get indigestion. Eat the final remaining 15g of chocolate as consolation. Then eat a slice of the Brownie immediately afterwards anyway. You know you want to.

When cool, cut into slices and store in an airtight container in a radiation-shielded clean room. (You can never be too careful with good Brownie.)

Cellaring characteristics: On day of baking, excellent crunchy top and good centre. On second day, Brownie achieves highest standard, with softening top more than offset by the full fudginess having developed in the core. By day three Brownie is well edible but past its best (so bake on Christmas Eve). And it would just be wrong to leave any till day four. The recipe only makes about 30 pieces, anyway...