When it comes to slicing brownies or blondies, it can be demoralising to see all your hard work devolve into a gooey, ragged mess. This is our foolproof way to cut brownies and blondies to get neat and clean results every time!

(1) Line your tin: Set yourself up for a win! For neat edges, line the base AND sides of your tin with baking paper, and leave enough overhanging to make it easy to pull your brownies out of the tin once cool.

(2) Leave to cool: To avoid a gooey sticky mess, make sure your brownies are completely cool before you remove them from the tin or cut them. This gives them enough time to properly set and firm up. If you’re running short on time, bung them (tin and all) in the fridge or freezer to help them cool down faster.

(3) Pick your knife: We like to use a large sharp serrated knife to portion our brownies, although a non-serrated cook’s knife will also work perfectly. The most important thing is to not use a sawing motion when cutting brownies/blondies – rather cut straight down and then lift your knife back up instead of dragging it out. (As an exception to this rule, if your brownies have a particularly thick/brittle crust on top that drags through the brownie when you cut it, use a serrated knife to gently saw through it initially, then confidently cut straight down to the bottom.)

(4) Hot knife method: Between each slice, run the blade of your knife under hot water (or dip in a jug of boiling water) and wipe it clean with paper towel. This gets rid of any sticky crumbs which can smear or rip the edges of your brownies. The warmth of the blade also helps ‘melt’ through the fudgy texture.

(5) Precision: If you want to be super precise (or are infamously bad at judging cut lines), grab a ruler and mark where you need to cut with the tip of a pairing knife.

Hot tip: We’ve read that using a plastic knife cuts brownies very cleanly due to its non-stick coating. While we still need to test this for ourselves, it sounds like a very promising hack. Give it a try!

ALSO SEE: How to bake perfect chocolate brownies with NOMU MiniMakes