Today I got my baking mojo on. I've been making quite a lot of banana loaf lately and while flicking through my recipe book my eyes have repeatedly strayed to this page. The page of the BEST EVER BROWNIES. This recipe came to me via a studient who worked in my class for a few months back in 2011 (I think). I can't remember her name, which is quite shameful, because on her last day she brought in a batch of brownies, made according to her Mum's recipe. We (Chris and I) wouldn't let her leave the building until she had phoned her Mum and written the recipe on scraps of paper for each of us. It is IMMENSE.
In case you can't zoom in, I'll pop the recipe at the bottom, because you will NEED to try these brownies.
It's been a tough week with lots of niggles and I was feeling quite grumpy this morning, so I got myself into a mindful state of mind and enjoyed the sights and smells of the baking experience. Two colours of sugar mixing with eggs.
All mixed up - I love how all those tiny bubbles appear. It's so glossy.
This is 12oz of chocolate melted luxuriously into 8oz butter. There is no hiding from the fact that this recipe is pretty shockingly unhealthy. But it is SOOOOOOO worth it.
Then you mix together the sugar-and-eggs and the chocolate-and-butter. Oh my word.
Add a tiny wee bit of flour... like icing sugar... or snow. The aroma at this point was excrutiatingly delicious.
And bung it in the oven. Happily, Little R's friend came round to play just as I shoved it into the oven, otherwise I'd have been unable to pull myself away from the kitchen. Instead, we were entertained playing with our boys and trying on some cute trousers I'd made them both.
Then it was ready. Would you just look at this.
Just. Look.
Is that not precisely how a brownie should look? Cracked and glossy on top, chewy on the bottom and gooey deliciousness in the middle.
Let me tell you, they are 100% amazeballs.
Soo... are you craving them? I bet you are. Who wouldn't? Ok - I have no guilt passing this recipe on because it came to me word of mouth. Here are the goods:
- 8oz butter
- 12oz chocolate (I used 8oz milk and 4oz dark for this particular batch, which results in a lovely flavour)
- 3 medium eggs
- 8 oz sugar (it works best if you use some brown and some caster)
- 3oz self-raising flour (or, if you're like me, nearly 3oz plain and a guessed amount of baking powder)
1. Melt the chocolate a butter in one bowl. Lick the spoon frequently as a form of "quality control".
2. Mix the sugar and eggs in another. Probably don't lick this. Bleurgh.
3. Mix both mixtures together. Get giddy on the smell.
4. Gently fold in the flour.
5. Pour into a greased and lined baking tray. You will need greaseproof paper, because it is STICKY.
6. Bake for around half an hour at 180o. Get it out when the top looks like a proper brownie.
7. Try to resist the urge to wait for it to cool.
8. Fail miserably and pull out gooey warm bits to scoff. Tell yourself you will NOT eat the whole lot in one day or you'll have a coronary heart attack or a migraine, or quite probably both.
9. Probably the best thing to do is to share the batch with friends to spread the joy and the calories.