Wagon Wheel Brownies
These delicious, fudgy, Wagon Wheel Brownies are soft and gooey on the inside, slightly crispy on the outside and have an incredible layer of Wagon Wheels in the centre.
Makes 9, 12 or 16 - depending on how you cut them!
Ingredients
- 200g unsalted butter, in cubes
- 200g dark chocolate, 70% cocoa solids, broken into pieces
- 150g soft brown sugar
- 50g caster sugar
- 3 eggs
- ¼ teaspoon fine salt
- 100g plain/all-purpose flour, sieved
- 25g cocoa, sieved
- ½ teaspoon instant coffee powder, sieved
- 6 Wagon Wheels
- 200g milk chocolate (I use Cadbury’s)
Instructions
-
Collect together your equipment (see Recipe Notes below) and ingredients.
-
Preheat oven to fan oven 170°C /190°C/375°F/Gas 5
-
Chop the butter into squares and place in a microwave safe bowl with the chopped chocolate. Melt in a microwave or a bain marie or and mix until smooth. (See Recipe Notes for details.)
-
Meanwhile put the sugars, eggs and salt in a mixing bowl and whisk with an electric whisk until thick and creamy. This will take around 3 minutes.
-
Pour the chocolate and butter into the eggs and sugar, whilst whisking, and mix thoroughly with the electric whisk until smooth and glossy.
-
Put a sieve over the bowl and add the flour, cocoa and coffee. Sift directly over the cake batter.
-
Fold until completely mixed in but be careful not to over-mix.
-
Transfer half of the mixture to your lined baking tin and level the surface, making sure the cake batter goes all the way into the corners.
-
Layer the Wagon Wheels over the brownie mix, covering as much of the area as possible. You will have to cut up a few to make them fit.
-
Next top with the remaining brownie mix, making sure the cake batter goes all the way into the corners.
-
Bake in the centre of the pre-heated oven for 20 – 25 minutes, depending on how squidgy you like the centre to be. (I cook mine for 23 minutes in London and 24 minutes in Switzerland.) This gives me a slightly crispy top but a gorgeous gooey centre. The cake will be slightly risen and cracked around the edges but the centre will feel quite soft. Remember the cake will continue to cook after you have taken it out of the oven.
-
When the cake is cool, melt the milk chocolate and spread it over the surface of the brownies. I break the chocolate into a microwave safe bowl or jug and melt it in the microwave. I blitz for 1 minute, then leave the chocolate for 4-5 minutes and then stir well. If the chocolate has not fully melted, blitz again, but only for 15 seconds at a time, stirring well in between each blitz.
-
Normally, I leave the chocolate to set before dividing into 16 Brownie bars, however on this occasion, we wanted to dive right in! The still warm melted chocolate on the top, was heavenly!
Recipe Notes
Equipment
- Large microwave safe jug or heatproof bowl
- Electric whisk and mixing bowl
- Kitchen scales and measuring spoons
- Sieve
- Chopping board and knife
- 20cm/8inch square baking tin lined with baking parchment
Be very careful melting the chocolate. Chocolate can be very difficult to work with. You can overheat it very easily and the mixture will go grainy. When this happens, there is no way to resolve it I’m afraid!
Microwave: I give the chocolate and butter a minute in the microwave, take it out and stir it well, then let it sit for a few minutes to see if it continues melting sufficiently to melt all the chocolate. If not, I then continue with the microwave but in 10 – 15 second bursts.
Bain Marie: if you do not have a microwave, put the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of gently simmering water. Do not let the base of the bowl touch the water. Heat until the chocolate and butter are very nearly melted then take it off the heat and take the bowl off the saucepan. Be very careful not to burn yourself as the bowl will be hot and steam will escape from the saucepan. Allow the mixture to sit for a few minutes for the residual heat to melt the remainder of the mixture. Again, be careful not to over-heat.