Does braking recharge the battery?

Yes, braking will regenerate up to a certain point and then the mechanical brakes kick in. If you completely disable regen braking it will just use 0 kWh when letting go of the throttle. It all depends on your driving style, if you anticipate more you'll consume less power. Going downhill for a long distance, it could be easier to use no regen braking but just use the brake pedal. If you use regen braking on high, you'll have to keep playing with the throttle to keep your speed. That could be easier for some with the brake pedal.

I don't know the roads you're driving down, but I would simply set the cruise control and it will take care of braking and regeneration.

Just put your for on the brake gently and watch the kw reading go negative

100%! Just maintain the speed limit down the hill, you'll use less energy indicated by the kW value being lower, if that values goes negative regen is occurring. Using regen to slow down, then the accelerator to speed up again is less efficient than just cruising at the same speed.

stop over thinking it and just put the cruise control on

What about in traffic?

Don't know your car but my Dolphin has ICC so it breaks automatically when someone is in front of him

I meant like stop start traffic, in peak hour.

I also do that via ICC, I only press the accelerator a little bit to start moving faster.

Right. I didn't realise that it worked in stop-start traffic as well. I get my car (M6) on Friday. I'm looking forward to trying it.

Freewheel. Also less strain on your brakes in the long run. Regen is so miniscule it's not worth it.