Six servings:
200 g of butter (I used 80% baking margarine)
4 eggs
3 dl sugar (anymore is too sweet IMO)
5 dl flour (add in more in exchange for less sugar to reduce sweetness)
2-4 tablespoons of cocoa powder (eyeballed it)
1 tablespoon of vanilla sugar (eyeballed it)
Pinch of salt
A bit of butter and breadcrumbs for the cooking pan (springform recommended but not necessary).
I did this in a lasagna pan (30 cm x 20 cm, eyeballed), end product had a thickness of about 1-2 cm.
- Set oven to 200ºC.
- Melt the butter in a cooking pot. Pro-tip: Take the pot off the stove when there's a sliver of butter left, the molten butter will melt the rest and keep the temperature low.
- Crack open and add the eggs. Whisk it with a balloon whisk or cooking fork.
- Add the sugar, vanilla sugar, and the salt. Whisk it.
- Add the cocoa powder. Whisk gently first so the powder doesn't go flying.
- Add the flour. Whisk gently for the same reason.
- Coat the cooking pan with butter, bottom and sides. Then coat the same area with breadcrumbs (heretics use cocoa powder, I hear).
- Pour the mixture into the pan with a bowl scraper. Gently "persuade" the mixture with the scraper to evenly fill the pan so the mixture doesn't rip up the crumbs.
- Put the pan in the middle of the oven for 10 minutes. You might need to experiment to get the right consistency[1].
- Enjoy the leftover mixture .
- Once done in the oven, take it out and let it cool down for 30 minutes or so.
- Once you can hold the pan in your hand without burning yourself, put it in the fridge for about an hour or overnight.
- Serve it straight or with powdered sugar, whipped cream, or vanilla ice cream.
[1] You'll know if you got it right after it has been in the fridge overnight. When cold, it should be a thick, solid slab with no air in it--sort of like you could beat someone to death with it, or difficult to cut through it with a plastic pan scraper. Slightly below room temperature, it should be almost amorphous--probably depends on the butter. There should be about 1-3 millimeters of spongy texture near the edges and on the bottom.
Too runny and you probably didn't have enough flour in it or didn't have it long enough in the oven. Too spongy, you've probably added too much flour or had it too long in the oven.