Kerry Brennan
Contributing Writer
These brownies bring me a ridiculous amount of joy. The ingredients are reasonably cheap and the preparation takes just 15 minutes, and creates very little washing up. When I made them last night, I actually danced around the kitchen eating them, still warm, having burnt my fingers on the cake tin. And the pleasure begins way before the actual eating. Before that, the colour of the melted dark chocolate and butter gleams up at you. Then, as they spend a somewhat agonizing 40 minutes in the oven, the smell floats around the house. THEN when you crack through the thick crisp shell and your teeth sink into the gooey, yet crumbly, yet chewy, goodness, I dare you not to dance too. I’m eating two as I write this… Okay, was eating.
I must have made them fifty times and it never fails. Just be careful when melting the chocolate and butter. Keep checking it in the microwave on a low heat. Take it out when almost fully melted; it should need some stirring. The same level of care is needed if you’re melting on the hob (a bain-marie if we’re being fancy). If you don’t already have one, you will need an 18cm (7 inch) square cake tin; it’s an investment into a lifetime of happiness. Oh and they are, of course, horrifically calorific but it’s Halloween?
Ingredients
100g butter
100g plain chocolate
300g caster sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 large eggs
125g plain flour
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
Method
– Preheat the oven to 180’C (160’C in a fan oven)
-While the butter and chocolate melts, grease and line the 18cm (7 inch) square cake tin
– Let the chocolate cool slightly, then stir in the sugar and vanilla extract
– Add the eggs on at a time, beating well in between each
– Add the flour and cocoa and beat again until smooth
-Pour into the cake tin and bake for 40 minutes (a cocktail stick should come out almost clean)
-Leave in the tin to cool
– Apply brownie to face
