Thanks to Jackie Leonard for pointing me in the direction of this recipe – it’s a Nigella one from How to be a Domestic Goddess, which I adapted a bit. For one thing: the quantity. I halved it, which was enough to fill a 19cm x 19cm tray. And I could measure it all out precisely using my shiny new digital scales. Did I mention that I have digital kitchen scales now? I know! I’ll be getting one of those new-fangled freezers next.
- 187g unsalted butter
- 187g best dark chocolate – I used Green & Blacks
- 3 large eggs
- half tablespoon vanilla extract (a snip at £5.30 a tiny bottle!)
- 250g caster sugar
- 112g sifted plain flour (Basics – I know where to cut corners. On this, not the chocolate.)
- half tsp salt
- 150g of chopped walnuts – except I didn’t use walnuts, I used 150g of my home-made granola. I had the walnuts ready to go in, but I just chucked the cereal in at the last minute instead, on a whim. This was a very happy decision.
Heat oven to 180˚C. Line the tray with baking parchment.
Melt the butter and chocolate in a heavy-bottomed pan.
Beat the eggs in a bowl with the sugar and vanilla.
Measure the flour in a separate bowl and add the salt.
Let the melted chocolate and butter mix cool a little, beat in the eggs & sugar. Then add the flour and the nuts or cereal, beat until smooth and pour in your lined tray.
Bake for about 25 minutes – it needs to be mottled on top but still a bit gooey in the middle, so keep an eye on it. Nobody likes a dry brownie, everyone loves a moist one. The fruit and oats in the granola provide a perfect counterpoint to the soft brownies. They turned out even better than these.
Nom, nom, nom.