The secret of perfect chocolate brownies: use a hairdryer!

I’m standing in my kitchen aiming a hairdryer at a pan of uncooked brownie batter and feeling like I might have finally lost my mind. I’ve done a lot of strange things in pursuit of recipe perfection, but even for me, this is an odd one.

Brownies are a funny old beast. We think of them as quite straightforward, both in the making and in the eating. But actually, that’s not fair. There are countless variables which can produce anything from a dry chocolate cake to uncooked fudge. And – more importantly – for a glorified traybake, they’re pretty damn expensive to make. A whole pat of butter, lots of chocolate, anything from three to five eggs, a boatload of sugar (rarely simple granulated). It’s a commitment. But it’s also a delicious Easter treat and an excellent use for any leftover chocolate eggs, in households where such a thing exists.

So I knew that if I was going to give a recipe for brownies, it had to be a good one. I approached this with the kind of diligence and professionalism that repeatedly making delicious chocolatey treats demands. I whisked and I folded, I melted and I cooled. I went to sleep thinking about brownies and woke up convinced I’d had some kind of epiphany overnight. I tried countless recipes and methods. I read forums and blogs. And that’s how I came across the hairdryer method.

Courtesy of a smart cookie called Aurelia Lambrechts, this method takes a small amount of milk chocolate, chops it finely, sprinkles it over the uncooked brownie batter, and blasts it with a hairdryer. It’s to do with the soy lecithin and milk solids in the milk chocolate, and it ensures that – no matter how you like your brownie – you end up with a perfect glossy, shiny, taut top.