The Best Brownies ever

I have been baking brownies for years, they are one of the easiest bakes - even for a novice - but I have since evolved from the simple 4-ingredient tray bake, following the discovery of a new partnership. Specifically, the marriage between luscious brownie and salted caramel with the sticky deliciousness of dates and pecans for crunch. Thank you Dane for this match made in foodie heaven. (p.s. If you love baking, Beyoncé and beauty then Dane is your man!)

First thing's first. Make your salted caramel. Pop over to my caramel post for the recipe. Then the rest is pretty darn easy!

I recommend investing in a digital scale as it makes measuring out your ingredients so much easier and you're guaranteed precision. Also, in lieu of a microwave (I've not had one for years), I have fallen in love with my stainless steel saucepan (I got mine for under $20 in Kmart). It conducts the heat perfectly and your contents won't stick to the surface, plus they're super easy to clean afterwards!

So, let's get down to business shall we. I like weighing out all my ingredients at the start because it makes the entire process so much quicker and less stressful if you've just got everything to hand.

Ingredients:

100g unsalted butter 250g caster sugar 75g golden syrup 300g dark chocolate (70% cocoa) 4 large eggs 120g plain flour 120g pecan nuts, roughly chopped 80g pitted dates, roughly chopped

Now you've got all your ingredients sorted, let's get onto the actual making of the brownie.

Method:

Grease and line a rectangular baking tin (13x9x2in) with greaseproof/baking paper and preheat your oven to 170˚C.

Melt the butter, sugar, golden syrup and chocolate either in the microwave, or in a stainless steel saucepan over a low heat.

Use a hand mixer to beat in the eggs one at a time until each is fully incorporated into the chocolate mixture.

Gently fold in the flour until you have a smooth, shiny and thick brownie batter. I use a plastic and silicone spatula as it gives you more control, it won't scratch your pan and it's far more effective at scraping any unmixed batter off the sides of the pan than a metal spoon!

Spread half of the batter into your prepared tin ( you can use a small step-palette knife to level it out). Then comes the glorious caramel! Pour it over the brownie batter trying to leave around a 1cm border to prevent it oozing out at the sides (which mine totally did so don't worry if yours does too, it won't affect the taste one little bit!).

Sprinkle over most of the pecans (save some to top the brownie with) and the dates.

Pour over the rest of your brownie mixture being careful not to disturb the first layer too much.

Sprinkle over the remaining pecans and pop your tin into the oven for around 20 minutes.

The secret to a great brownie is a gooey, moist centre so you don't want to overbake your brownie. If you insert a knife or skewer and it comes out still pretty wet with maybe a bit of brownie stuck to it, it's ready!

Leave to cool, then wrap the whole thing in cling film and refrigerate over night. This is pretty crucial because that batter is going to be pretty tacky so you ideally do not want to cut into it until it's had that time to sort of set in the fridge. I did cut into mine straight out the oven and was sadly forced to eat the mushy mess of one that wasn't ready to be separated from the rest! (Haha it was bloody delicious) But from an aesthetical perspective and for ease of dividing it up into portions, I would definitely advise you to wait until the fridge has worked its magic!

Then... enjoy! Maybe with some ice cream!

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