New recipe: Sour Cream Brownies

These rich, fudgy brownies strike the perfect balance between dense and gooey, with chunks of white chocolate throughout and a secret ingredient—sour cream—that keeps them impossibly moist.

SERVES 12

INGREDIENTS

150 g unsalted butter, cube
250 g dark chocolate (45-55% cocoa solids), roughly chopped
3 eggs
250 g caster sugar
100 g plain all-purpose flour
¼ tsp fine sea salt
2 tbsp Dutch-process (unsweetened) cocoa powder
150 g sour cream
2 tsp vanilla bean paste
100 g white chocolate, roughly chopped

1.  Preheat the oven to 160°C fan-forced and line the base and sides of a 20 cm square cake tin with baking paper, leaving enough paper overhanging to help lift the cooked brownie out of the tin.

2.  Place the butter, then the dark chocolate in a medium saucepan and place over very low heat, stirring often so the chocolate doesn’t catch on the bottom of the pan. You can also do this in a double boiler if you prefer, but I find that as long as the heat is very low and you stir the mixture often, this method works just fine! Continue to stir until the chocolate and butter have melted and you have a gloriously glossy, warm chocolate puddle. Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly while you whisk the eggs.

3.  Place the eggs and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer with a whisk attachment and whisk on medium–high speed until the mixture is thick and pale, 3-5 minutes. While the eggs and sugar are whisking, place the plain flour, salt and cocoa powder in a bowl and mix well. Set aside.

4.  In a separate small bowl, stir the sour cream until smooth, then use a hand whisk to mix it into the warm chocolate mixture, along with the vanilla. Gently fold the chocolatey sour cream mixture into the whisked eggs and sugar. When the chocolate mixture is almost all folded through, sift the flour, salt and cocoa over the top, and gently fold this in too.

5.  Lastly, stir in the white chocolate pieces. Pour the batter in the prepared tin, smoothing the top with a spatula and tapping the tin gently on the bench a few times to remove any large air bubbles.

6.  Bake for 35-40 minutes or until the surface is shiny and set, but the brownie is still a little wobbly underneath when the tin is jiggled. Allow to cool completely in the tin before lifting it out and slicing.

7.  Serve the brownies at room temperature with a cup of tea or while taking a lovely hot bath.

8.  Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week.

Recipes extracted from Handfuls of Sunshine by Tilly Pamment, published by Murdoch Books, RRP $45.