“Brownies are the easiest to make.” That’s what they say… and I do agree to an extent. These bad boys usually don’t need any creaming or whipping. Just mix it all up in a bowl and bake it in the oven! Poof! You’re done… also on the condition that you didn’t try to change the recipe.

Now, if you’ve been following me for some time, you will know that I simply LOVE to change up recipes. I’m not sure if it’s because I don’t follow instructions or because this is my channel for creativity. (Let’s just go with the latter) But yes, I love experimenting with recipes; be it adding an extra egg for fluffiness, whipping up the eggs to ribbon stage instead of just whisking them, reducing the sugar or fat, … etc. In the case of these “simple” brownies, well, I kinda did some A/B testing for all of the above. And boy, what a difference it made! So I baked these brownies 7 times, changing a single variable each time, before I finally decided on my very own recipe that I’m going to share with you below. Don’t worry, you won’t have to make these 7 times! Like I said, they’re super easy… as long as you follow the instructions! Ironic eh..

Here are some tips for troubleshooting brownies! Don’t say I didn’t warn ya!

• Sugar: Initially I wanted to reduce the sugar. Most recipes call for at least 1 cup (or more) for the below ratio which I found was too overwhelmingly sweet. My initial instinct was to drastically reduce the sugar, but that would cause your brownies to lose their shiny crinkly crust! I did however, manage to reduce it to 2/3 cup without losing the gorgeous top crust. Reduce any further, and you’ll risk a texture change in these brownies.
• Eggs: Do not, I repeat, DO NOT add any more eggs to this recipe. My recipe calls for whipping the eggs with sugar to the ribbon stage which will give the brownies more volume but keep them fudgy. Even a single additional egg will give you cake-y brownies. If you do want to add additional eggs, the other alternative would be to not whip up the eggs to the ribbon stage, and just dump them one by one directly into the batter. They might not end up as thick though!

• Flour: As with the eggs, too much flour and you’ll end up with cake-y brownies! No self-rising flour too! It’s gonna give you… need I say it again? Yes, cake-y brownies.

• Chocolate and butter: Reducing any of these would change the entire ratio, which might just give you…. cake-y brownies.

• Baking in the oven: Always check for done-ness. And no, you should not under bake your brownies to get them fudgy. Underbaked brownies are simply just going to be end up as underbaked brownies. Insert a toothpick to the middle and check that it comes out moist with crumbs on it. Too clean and you’ve overbaked it. If there’s wet better, then it needs more time.

So there you go, those are my tips for troubleshooting fudgy brownies. Perhaps I should just title it as “How to Not End Up with Cake-y Brownies”. Lol. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I detest Cake-y Brownies! I’ve honestly had really good ones before. But the cake-y brownies that I’m referring to here are accidental ones which would not taste as good as actual recipes catered for cake-y Brownies. Of course, I’m still a die-hard fan of the fudgy brownies!

If you’re a Toblerone fan like myself, these brownies are perfect! Although I must say that Toblerone chocolates probably does not have a very distinct taste. Most people weren’t too quick to identify the chocolate used!

Toblerone Brownies

• 1/2 cup butter
• 220g roughly chopped Toblerone (140g dark [black Toblerone] and 80g milk [yellow Toblerone])
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup chopped almonds
• 40g roughly chopped Toblerone (either dark or milk)

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Lay an 8″x8″ pan with parchment paper.
2. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Remove the pan from the heat element and stir in 220g Toblerone. Keep stirring until chocolate is melted. Set aside.
3. Beat sugar and eggs until thick and pale.
4. Pour the butter-chocolate mixture into the sugar-eggs mixture while whisking by hand. Mix until mixture is combined
5. Sift in flour and whisk until flour is absorbed.
6. Finally, fold in the chopped almonds and Toblerones (40g)
7. Bake in your pan for 40 minutes at 350 degrees.
8. If you’ll be taking pictures, wait till they cool to cut them up so you get a cleaner cut. Otherwise, i love freshly baked brownies best! They’re fully of chocolate-y goodness and less sweet this way!