This wickedly good recipe from David Lebovitz’ new book, Room for Dessert, is a cross between a brownie and fudge.
It’s made in an interesting way – part of the process involves beating the mix by hand, until it “snaps”, in much the same way as fudge does. This slight change in state gives it a delicious texture – though if you don’t beat it enough, the brownie will be grainy.
The recipe is easy to make, using only one saucepan and mere minutes of preparation time. Ensure you have everything measured out before you begin, as the process is very quick once you get started. Also, use the very best chocolate you can afford, as it’s the main ingredient in this recipe.
On the topic of chocolate – it’s important to note that this won’t work (at least not in my experience) if you use high cocoa chocolate in in the initial melting part of the recipe. The brownies are perfect when butter and 54% Callebaut callets are melted together, and passable with 64% cacao chocolate, but the 70% resulted in an oily mass that cooked up hard with a film of grease over the top. I think that’s because the quantities in this recipe are so small that if you alter the fat balance (which is what increasing the cocoa mass does) without adjusting the other ingredients, the balance goes completely out of whack.
I’ve now made this dish a dozen times and offer two variations – one with nuts as specified in the original recipe (photo above) and the other with extra chocolate. No prizes for guessing which one my boys prefer!
. . . . .
Fudge Brownies
(based on Robert’s Absolute Best Brownies in David Lebovitz’ Room for Dessert)
- 90g (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter
- 225g (8oz) 50 – 60% cacao semisweet chocolate (I used Callebaut 54%)
- 150g (¾ cup) sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 large (59g) eggs, at room temperature
- 40g (¼ cup) plain (AP) flour
- 135g (1 cup) toasted and chopped nuts, OR 150g (1 cup) chocolate bits (Note: for the all chocolate version, I used 100g Callebaut 44% bake stable sticks, broken up AND 50g Callebaut 70% callets)
. . . . .
1. Preheat oven to 175C/350F or 160C/320F with fan.
2. Measure out all your ingredients and have them ready to go. Line a 20cm (8″) baking pan with parchment paper.
3. In a medium saucepan, melt the butter, then add the chocolate and stir over low heat until melted and smooth. Remove from the heat and stir in the sugar and vanilla until combined.
4. Stir in the eggs one at a time. Add the flour all at once and stir vigorously until you can feel the batter “snap”. I’ve taken some photos to try and show you what happens – please excuse the slightly blurry one below.
The batter starts out grainy and fairly loose. As you beat it by hand, it will initially feel like nothing is happening, and then it will suddenly feel a bit stiffer – that’s when you’ll know a state change has occurred. This might take one minute, or it might take several. Stop occasionally to check how it’s going. Unlike true fudge, it’s not a huge “snap”, but the texture will definitely change noticeably – it will feel stiffer, look smoother, and pull away from the sides and bottom of the pan.
Edit Jan 2019: It’s been nearly nine years since I wrote this post, and my hands are nine years older as well, so these days I use a handheld mixer to beat the batter. It only takes a minute or two, but it’s just easier.
5. Gently stir in the inclusions.
6. Scrape the batter into the lined tin and smooth out the top. Bake for 25-30 minutes until just firm. Do not overbake. Allow the brownies to cool completely before lifting them out of the pan and slicing.
These are very easy to make and incredibly moreish. Pete recently announced (proclaimed?) the all chocolate version below to be his new favourite brownie!
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
Those do look “wicked good”!
I made brownies on a baking spree last week and then forgot them. Really- just place them on a side counter and forgot them completely!
I had made some berry dessert (cobbler) and cinnamon rolls and I served them but the brownies went unnoticed.
Until I had to have a dessert for our Independence Day picnic.
Then I found the pan of brownies and cut them up and made a trifle with pudding and mascarpone cheese and Bristol Creme liquor and whipped cream. Yum!
I’m so glad I forgot and them found those brownies.
I thinK I will post the recipe on my blog.
The trifle simply disappeared from the table in record time.
Heidi, trifle made with brownies? No wonder they disappeared at lightning speed! :) Look forward to seeing the recipe…
I know what I am going to be baking sometime this week!!!
Again…thanks so much for sharing with us all!
Judy
This is the first brownie recipe I have seen for a long time that tempts me – really tempts me – I’m quivering with excitement, like a poodle that’s just spotted a squirrel……
and I love you for putting in the gram weights – a lot xx
Hey Figgie Jam –
This is a great recipe because it has measurements in cups and spoons. When I see grams, my heart sinks. Yes, I am an old fashioned American who loves the historical inches, feet, yards and cups, quarts, etc.
Anyway, thanks for the recipe. This is one I believe I will try. And thanks for your other charming and interesting e-mails.
Best,
Patricia
Breakfast!
Oops, just noticed I didn’t include flour in the ingredients list – apologies – corrected now!
Joanna, Patricia, getting your comments one after the other made me laugh! :)
Patricia, David Lebovitz’ recipes usually have both cups and grams, as he’s an American living in Paris. I have many American friends who are used to using cups and teaspoons, but I personally find my baking results to be much more consistent when I weigh (although I will bake a recipe written purely in cup measures). For me, it’s much easier to always work on a cup of flour as 150g – if I work on scooping with a cup measure, I can get anything from 140g – 165g.
Oh drool. They look soooooo good.
Too delicious for words!
Oh happy days, they look so incredibly fudgey!
I might try a rum & raisin version for extra naughtiness :)
I had never heard of the ‘snap’ before and thanks for the tip about the level of cocoa in the chocolate as I tend to just use 70% for everything. These look sinful!
I still haven’t ever made a brownie before. These sorts of things need to be remedied obviously. In this household though the mixture would be lucky to make it to the oven. Looks delicious Celia:-)
…I’m so up for a brownie trifle!
Yum!!
I recently got my hands on David Lebovitz’ new book, but haven’t tried to make anything out of it yet.
With school hols on now I think it will be a great way to keep kids occupied – for a while at least!
can’t wait to tray making these! yumm!
Celia you had me at Fudge brownie :P No seriously, does it get any better than this? Funny you mention the high cocoa content chocolates. At Baroque the chef jean Michel said that high cocoa chocolate doesn’t combine well as there isn’t enough cocoa butter.
Thank you all!
Lorraine, that is very interesting! There’s a lot of cocoa butter in the cocoa mass itself, but they obviously add more to milk and white chocolate. I wonder how it all works? But for whatever reason, I really can’t seem to make this recipe work when the % cocoa is too high in the chocolate…
C, these do look wickedly good. Oh how I miss you and your yummy treats.
Gosh they look amazingly good Celia…I could certainly do with one of those right now.
Did you deliberately post this decadent brownie recipe (my very big weakness) on the first day I am supposed to be working from home? hmm? Your normal posts are tempting enough…making me rush home to cook most of them. But now knowing that I have a kitchen a mere twenty steps away is cause for concern with reading your blog. Perhaps I will have to ban myself from reading your blog until the end of the day….so I don’t rush off and cook whatever it is and waste my entire day cooking, and then eating it?! Good thing I didn’t check it today until I actually came into the old office for some work….
These brownies look yummy, I’m sure you had helpers to lick the spatula! At any age the temptation is just too high!Must share a similar recipe with you this week…Haven’t done anything chocolate yet…thanks for sharing x
Your fudge brownies look like the real thing!!
I so much love that here isn’t too much butter in them!
MMMMMMMMMM,…I will make these tasty looking treats!
Dan, seriously, these are very easy to make – you won’t even need your much loved KitchenAid!
Spice Girl, I’m sure you’ve actually tried these one of the times you were over…
Yvette, looking forward to your recipe!
Sophie, there isn’t much butter in them, but there’s also a tiny bit of flour, and I was thinking that you might be able to substitute gluten-free flour? Not sure if it would affect the mixing part?
Oh My Word – have just found your fantastic blog via ZebsBakes – CHOCOLATE BROWNIES, well, what can I say ?! I shall return … : D
The brownies look absolutely lucious! My baby will love them. The recipe seems amazing.. it’ really simple. I will try this soon :)
It’s cool and gray here today, and never in a million did I think I would find a cure to my weather blues on your blog…off to the store…bring on the chocolate sunshine! YUM!
They’re cooling in the pan. I’m obeying orders, so none tonight. Looking good though – can one eat fudge brownies for breakfast I wonder? x
Thank you! And Jo, bless you for trying them already! :)
[…] the chocolate expert at Fig Jam and Lime Cordial has written a perfect post on the perfect brownie […]
These look amazing! And I love the step-by-step photos, especially with the explanation of the snap. Must try…….
Celia – those are great photos to illustrate your snapping method which I hadn’t really understood. Thank you. I shall of course be trying these out at some point, but I’m getting behind I’ve still got your last lot of brownies to try.
Abby, Choclette, thank you!
Choclette, I don’t know if you have the book Bittersweet by Alice Medrich, but there is a similar recipe in there, only she has it worked out for different % cacao chocolate. It was a revelation to me that the % would affect the end result, but in this case it really does – sadly it took me two batches and nearly half a kilo of expensive Belgian chocolate to figure it out…
Okay…..brownies made and baked and cooling!
They look absolutely delicious!!
Jude
Thanks for trying them, Jude! Hope your tribe enjoyed them! :)
Hey Celia, I will post some photos soon on my brownies. But I will be renaming them to ‘2 men and a lady’ brownies. That’s how many it took to get the batter to ‘snap’ stage!!
Maybe that was because I used El Rey 70% (all I had…). I must get some Callebaut 60%. Do you use it for baking or chocolate making??
Oh also I used the microwave to melt butter and chocolate. My gas hob seems not to understand ‘low’ heat :-(
Gill, you did better than I. When I used 70%, the batter split (please see post) and turned into an oily mess. Did you adjust the other quantities at all to accommodate the higher % cacao (as per the Bittersweet book)? It should work in the microwave – can’t see why not. Thanks for trying the recipe Gill!
Brownies look just divine – can’t wait to try them!
[…] as well. It could have been something I did…I don’t want to put you off the original recipe as it looks sensational. Not sure that I could go the double chocolate hit in the original recipe as […]
[…] recipe comes from Celia at Fig Jam and Lime Cordial via David Lebovitz. Fudgey chocolatey brownies, […]
Too often, “best ever” and “world’s best” fail to live up to the hype. Not in this case. This recipe is the only one I shall be using in future. Spectacular yet so simple. Thanks.
MissA, thank you!
Lester, hooray! So glad you enjoyed them – thanks for letting me know.
Thanks so much for this recipe! it’s the best one i’ve come across so far!! :)
So glad you like it, Chels, thanks for letting me know. We made another batch this weekend! :)
hmm they loook nice :)
pls be so kind & help with yr precious advice the amateur overseas friend of yrs!
it was my 1st attempt to make “fudge” brownies but forced to do some variations, since my kitchen’s supplies differed slightly from yrs!:)
brownies’ texture came out a little bit sticky, not fluffy.
is this expected so? they didn’t result in the normal height; unfortunately I used a 25 cm baking pan.
i used a local hellenic brand 53% cacao semisweet chocolate & 68 gr (iof 135 gr) toasted & chopped almonds (iof nuts).
i was thrilled with the “snap” stage! you ‘re such a valuable teacher! however the “snap” stage came for me just before to add the flour. was that ok?….
thx so much for all! :)
Hi Gina! Thanks for trying this recipe. The brownies end up about 2cm tall when made in a 20cm baking pan, so they would be a bit smaller in a larger tin. The texture isn’t light and fluffy, but more fudgy and dense – like a cross between cake and chocolate fudge, if that makes sense. I’m puzzled by your batter stiffening up before you add the flour though, as I’ve never had that happen before? Were you happy with the end result? Thanks, Celia
oh!since it was my 1st attempt, i didn’t know what to expect! now i feel such a relief! brownies were about 1.5cm tall, the texture was dense and fudgy, the day after were even more inviting to our eyes and tasteful to our mouth!!! taste was good, happy with the result at the end! no bites left! however i should resolve my own puzzle about the snap stage at my next attempt! thx so much! greetings :)
When we had to make brownies today with my daughter’s friend on a play date…..I pilgrimaged here, and have a batch of these int he oven, with crushed thin mint cookies for inclusions! Will let you know how it goes!
[…] A brownie fudge recipe from Celia […]