Four words will be enough: rich, gooey, squidgy, delicious.

Makes: 16 “moderate” squares, or go LARGE and just have a few big’ns

Level: Easy

Time: About 20 – 25 minutes “hands on/prep” then around 45 minutes baking

Need: A 20cm/8” square brownie tin, ideally with a loose bottom. A large saucepan

Ingredients

250g/9oz butter
100g/4oz cocoa powder
250g/9oz golden caster sugar
250g/9oz light brown sugar
½ tsp fine salt
1 tsp coffee powder or granules (optional)
100g/4oz dark chocolate, finely chopped or grated
4 large eggs, beaten one by one
100g/4oz self- raising flour
100g/4oz desiccated coconut

To decorate – optional

50g/2oz white chocolate
A generous sprinkling of desiccated coconut

Method

1. Heat the oven to 180°C / Fan 160°C / 350°F / Gas 4.

2. Begin to melt the butter in a large saucepan on a low heat. As it melts, use a little to butter and then line the base and interior sides of the tin with baking parchment.

3. Sift the cocoa powder into the melting butter and stir in the sugars. Add the salt and coffee powder (if using). Raise the heat a little and keep stirring.

4. Reduce the heat to low and stir in the finely chopped chocolate. Stir well. The mixture will be quite firm and thick – don’t worry, the eggs will loosen it.

5. Take the saucepan off the heat and stir the mixture until cool. Lightly beat the first egg in a small bowl then stir it into the mixture. Repeat with the other three eggs.

6. Sift in the flour and stir in the desiccated coconut. Mix well.

7. Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin. Tap the tin a couple of times on a work surface to settle it then bake in the middle of your oven for about 45 – 48 minutes. When baked there should still be a wobble to the brownie and the edges will be pulling away from the sides of the tin.

8. Leave in the tin until cool then turn out onto a rack or board. You may want to invert the block to have a flatter uppermost surface.

9. Use a sharp serrated knife to cut into pieces. I find that wetting the blade helps give a cleaner cut. However, you may prefer to decorate the block and cut it afterwards.

10. To decorate, melt the white chocolate, ideally using a bain marie. Fill a piping bag, snip the end and pipe zig-zag lines over the brownies. Work quickly to sprinkle desiccated coconut over the melted chocolate before it hardens.

N.B. I sprinkled the coconut on quite liberally which meant I had to shake off the excess. When I did so I had a sudden idea. Rather than trying to put it all back into the bag, I dipped the gooey edges of each brownie in the left over coconut. Definitely worth doing.