Bloomin' Brilliant Brownie

I have had a few requests for my brownie recipe of recent. This brownie is luscious and melts in your mouth. The secret is good quality chocolate and cocoa (see notes below). The recipe comes from Jamie Oliver's website. As always I have made a few adjustments to the recipe so have included these. Sorry Jamie - perfection can be added to!


Bloomin' Brilliant Brownie
250g butter
200g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids), broken up (save the rest of the block)
80g cocoa powder, sifted
65g plain flour, sifted
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
360g caster sugar
4 large eggs


In a large bowl over some simmering water, melt the butter and the chocolate and mix until smooth.
Add the cherries and nuts, if you’re using them, and stir together.
In a separate bowl, mix together the cocoa powder, flour, baking powder and sugar, then add this to the chocolate mixture.
Stir together well.
Beat the eggs and mix in until you have a silky consistency.
Chop the remainder of the chocolate block into chunks and stir these through.
Pour your brownie mix into the a 25 cm square baking dish, and place in a 180°C oven for around 25 minutes.
You don’t want to overcook them so, unlike cakes, you don’t want a skewer to come out all clean. The brownies should be slightly springy on the outside but still gooey in the middle.
Allow to cool in the tray, then carefully transfer to a large chopping board and cut into chunky squares.


Ingredient notes:
My favourite cocoa is Equagold organic cocoa. I have just started trying the Trade Aid fair trade organic cocoa as it is kinder on the pocket. I will let you know how that works out next time I make it.
I use Whitakers Dark Ghana (72%) or Dark Cacao (62%) The dark cacao has a sharper almost orangey flavour. Both are yum!
If you are an allergy sufferer this recipe can be made dairy free using above chocolate (these two have no milk products) and a butter substitute called Just Like Butter. Nobody has complained about my dairy free version! 
Cocoa is usually gluten free, if you buy the good stuff, and the flour is such a small amount that replacing with rice flour is also successful. The baking powder can be omitted also, however, the Edmonds brand is gluten free (but does contain a warning about traces if you are hyper allergic).