Most of you know it has been almost a month since Z started Nursery School and thankfully, she has settled in well and is quite involved with its day-to-day happenings. This weekend, the school celebrated the ‘World’s biggest coffee morning’ in aid of McMillan Cancer Research. Among other things, we are trying to instil a feeling of joy in Z – in doing, and in giving, especially back to the community. So, she was extremely enthusiastic when I suggested we make some brownies for the school bake sale.
We kept it nut-free in view of the fact that it was for school kids and added a mix of dark, milk and white chocolate chips instead but add a handful of nuts or do away with everything if you please. It still tastes decadent, if you ask me.
Makes: 16 squares or 32 triangles Time: 1h Skill Level: Moderate
Ingredients
- 4 medium sized free range eggs
- 300g sugar
- 100g milk chocolate bar
- 225g butter
- 100g self raising flour (or plain flour with a tsp of baking powder & sodium bicarbonate each, mixed well)
- 100g cocoa powder
- A few drops of vanilla extract
- 30g mix of milk, dark and white chocolate chips or chopped pieces (optional)
- Handful of chopped walnuts (optional)
Method
- Grease and line an 8” x 8” square cake tin and set the oven to 180 deg C/ 160 without fan / Gas mark 4
- Roughly chop the milk chocolate and along with the cocoa powder and butter, microwave for about 2 minutes, and then give it a thorough mix until it looks like a silky, brown ganache. Alternately, heat the mix in a double boiler, stirring continuously until it reaches a silken and uniform texture. Allow the mixture to cool
- In another container, mix the eggs, vanilla extract and sugar and whisk it for 5-10 minutes until it doubles in volume and looks pale and creamy
- Add the cooled chocolate mix slowly to the egg & sugar mixture, folding it in (try doing a figure of 8) so it doesn’t lose air
- Add the flour in batches, slowly folding it in as above until the whole mixture looks like a thick, brown glob.
- Add the nuts and chocolate mix, if you intend to use them
- Pour the mix into your cake tin and give it a shake, so it loses any air bubbles stuck within
- Put the cake tin in the middle of your oven and let it bake for 20 min, checking to see if a 5cm knife will come out clean if you pass it through. Give it another 5 minutes if you aren’t too sure
- Bring it out and let it cool before dusting it with some icing sugar and cutting it into the desired size and shape
The brownie should look crunchy from the top and have a gooey texture inside. Z and I decided to give it a seasonal twist and decorated ours in the patterns of autumnal leaves covering mossy woodlands… the idea makes me oh-so-happy and the task was full of fun!
Z brought a piece back from the bake sale and trust me, it was gooey, decadent and totally sinful – but it’s almost jumper season, so who in their right mind should be counting calories, #amiright?! 😉
For those who are calorie-conscious (I am, a little), why don’t you give these yummy Apple Cinnamon Scones a try? They get done pretty easily, and are almost guilt-free! 🙂
If you, like me, are suffering from Pujo-related pangs, try making and having these super easy Nolen Gur Kachagollas – trust me, they are amazeballs!
Either way, its festive season, give in to a bit of temptation, and do let me know how it was.
Until next time,
Paulomi x
The Interrobong 
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