Double dark choc chip brownies

I have so many brownie recipes that use only cocoa and no chopped cooking chocolate or melted choc chips- a standard recipe with extras like choc chips and nuts or fruit, and a Hershey's dup trying to re-create the recipe from my childhood which came off a Hershey's cocoa box, blondie brownie cheesecake, peanut butter brownie. I've experimented with different types of sugar (white, brown or mix) to try to achieve just the right texture of melting fudge with a crispy top (that remains even the next few days) without it becoming too much like chocolate cake.

I've actively avoided using cooking chocolate and melting choc chips just because it's extra store cupboard items to stock but I've never achieved the right level cake with fudginess without it going over the top to become too raw, and I think that's the limit of using pure cocoa powder. When I encountered the gateau,  it opened up my mind to the possibility of chopping baking chocolate as a fudgey but cakey alternative.

Here comes RecipeTinEat's easy recipe which uses both chopped choc bar and choc chips. Except I don't like melting choc chips with butter as I feel there are other ingredients like stabilisers in the choc chips, so I've swapped them and used the pure block of cooking chocolate as my base. 

Ingredients

200g butter, melted

200g dark choc bar, chopped

1C brown sugar (175g(

3 eggs, beaten

1 tsp vanilla extract

½ C (75g) flour

¼ C (30g) cocoa powder

180g/1C dark choc chips (chopped), leave some for deco on top

¼ C fruit or chopped walnuts (optional)

salt pinch

Method (8 inch square pan)

1. In a microwave or bain marie, melt the butter and chopped chocolate bar. Leave to cool slightly.

2. Combine the sugar, vanilla with the melted choc mixture.

3. Add the beaten eggs and combine.

4. Sift in the flour, cocoa and salt.

5. Mix in the dark choc chips. Mix in any optional chopped walnuts, etc.

6. Pour into the prepared tin (with parchment overhang).

7. Bake at 180 deg C for 24 (very fudgey almost raw), 28 (gooey) to 32 minutes (cake-like). Rest in tin for 10 minutes before removing/lifting out of the tin. It will look too soft and undercooked! Allow to cool at least 20 minutes before slicing up.

Feedback

- Not entirely sure if I read the recipe wrongly as I swapped the add-in chips for the choc bar to melt. However, i did use 20g less of choc bar with the butter as the bar was 180g straight off the packet and I didn't bother topping up the 20g. The result was a very oily brownie with oil oozing out when it first came out of the oven, pooling in the centre but the sides were dry! I slathered the oil onto the sides and it seemed to absorb back in. 

- It was really also very flat, maybe that's normal? Even an additional 20g wouldn't have made much difference to the height.