Fudgy brownies, just right

Someone asked me what I do when I'm not sitting over this app. Mostly, I cook. So here's the recipe I've made more times than I'd like to admit — because a calendar alone has never rescued anybody's bad day, and a brownie occasionally has.

Three things decide a brownie. Get these right and the rest is detail.

Fudgy, not cakey. Lots of fat, little flour, no baking powder. Don't whip air into it.

The crackly top. Whisk the sugar and eggs until pale and glossy — two or three minutes, longer than feels necessary. The dissolved sugar rises and sets into that thin shiny crust. This is the step everyone rushes.

Soft, not hard. The number one mistake is over-baking. Pull it out while the middle still looks a touch underdone. It carries on cooking in the tin.

What you need
170 g butter (¾ cup)
180 g dark chocolate, 50–70% (6 oz)
200 g sugar — 130 g white + 70 g brown (1 cup total)
2 eggs + 1 extra yolk
1 tsp vanilla
85 g plain flour (⅔ cup)
25 g unsweetened cocoa (¼ cup)
a pinch of salt
100 g chocolate chunks, optional (⅔ cup)

The brown sugar is what makes them chewy and moist. The extra yolk is what pushes them from cake towards fudge. Neither is optional if you want the real thing.

How
Heat the oven to 175 °C / 350 °F (160 °C fan). Line a 20×20 cm (8×8 inch) tin with baking paper, leaving an overhang so you can lift the whole thing out later.

Melt the butter and chocolate gently — over hot water or in short bursts in the microwave — then let it cool a few minutes. Warm, not hot, or you'll scramble the eggs.

Whisk the sugar, eggs, yolk and vanilla for two to three minutes, until pale, thick and glossy. This is the crackly crust. Don't rush it.

Stir the warm chocolate butter into the eggs until smooth. Fold in the flour, cocoa and salt just until combined — no more. Over-mixing builds gluten and turns them cakey. Fold the chunks through now if you're using them.

Pour into the tin, level the top, and bake 25–30 minutes. The edges should be set and the middle should still have a slight wobble.

And then the hardest ingredient: let them cool. All the way. I know. But warm brownies fall apart and the fudge only sets as they come down. If you can manage it, an hour in the fridge afterwards makes them properly dense.

That's it. No app required.