It's brownie time!

Why, you may ask, is it brownie* time? Well, two reasons: First, I've been thinking for quite some time that it's something that's been somewhat lacking in my baking repertoire and I need to up my brownie game and find a really good recipe  (see, for example, this previous not-a-disaster-but-not-amazing effort). Secondly, and of course more importantly, because I stumbled across a recipe that piqued my curiosity. The reason it caught my attention isn't actually that great - I've totally been swept up in the hype and am now a huge fan of my cast iron skillet (for reference, it's this one: an absurd £99 from Amazon UK, but if you are willing to cart it back from America like I did, a very reasonable $35 from Amazon US - about £27 at current exchange rates. Be warned though, it's bloody heavy!) and the opportunity to find another use for it was too good to pass up! Nonetheless, it looks really good, does it not, and Serious Eats has generally been a pretty consistently excellent source of recipes and ideas. There's no intentional tinkering with this one, as I really have no idea what is really going on with this recipe!

*Yes, the recipe I used calls it a cookie, but it's very clearly more a brownie than a cookie.

Cast Iron Skillet Brownie
Ingredients

• 225g Butter
• 115g Caster sugar
• 235g Soft dark brown sugar
• 25g Ovaltine powder**
• 1 1/2 tsp Vanilla extract
• 1 tsp Table salt
• 1/2 tsp Baking powder
• 1 tsp Bicarbonate of soda
• Some grated nutmeg***
• 1 Egg
• 355g Plain flour
• 200g Cooking milk chocolate, roughly chopped
• 140g Assorted plain chocolate, roughly chopped

Method

1. Mix the butter, sugar, Ovaltine, vanilla, salt, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and nutmeg in a food mixer with the paddle on medium speed for ~5 mins until fluffy.
2. Add the egg and mix until smooth.
3. Turn mixer down to slow and add the flour and chocolate. Mix to form a stiff dough.
4. Press the dough into a well-greased cast iron skillet.
5. Bake at 200 C for ~35 mins until golden brown
6. Allow to cool in skillet for ~45 mins until crumb sets before removing from skillet.

** Original recipe Ovaltine - the stuff you add hot milk to
*** I didn't even try to measure this. It's supposed to be 1/8 tsp, but I have no idea how much I actually added!

A pretty darned straight forward recipe! It's a bit weird though - here's what it looks like before going into the oven:

Fresh from the oven. I may have let the top get slightly singed...

On cooling, it sank a bit - I guess I probably overdid the baking soda/powder.

It's denser and fudgier than expected...

Well, it wasn't quite what I expected, but it was not bad overall. The biggest fault is that there's just too much butter - it ended up quite greasy, and far too rich. But the texture was really nice - fudgy and chewy, and there was a really nice caramel taste to it from all the brown sugar (the Ovaltine probably helped too). It was quite nice served warm with a good dollop of vanilla ice cream, but I think my search for an excellent brownie recipe continues...