Wednesday 23 April 2014

Easter Chocolate Brownies

Believe it or not I'm not the biggest fan of chocolate and as most women will agree there is a certain time for all of us when Mother Nature rips off her crown, stamps her feet and demands that we give in to what SHE wants (what a villain she is!) However this time, there was definitely nobody holding me a gunpoint, demanding I shovel each and every last chocolately square into my mush, no siree. 

Some of you probably imagine me pottering around the kitchen, whisking away like Suzie Homemaker, a little caster sugar on my nose, scooping up just enough mixture with my little finger in a bid to decide whether it needs a little something extra. Well no ... from beginning to end my fat face was full of chocolate. At one point I couldn't tell where the chocolate started and my face began! If I wasn't chowing down on mini eggs (all of the pink ones) I was reaching into the drawer, the drawer directly in front of my chubby, little tum might I add, for a new spoon to scoop out some of the mixture. I cut off the edges and ate them when I was supposed to be waiting for the brownies to cool down. I was caught stuffing my hand into my bag on my train to work, trying to find the biggest square obviously. And then at work (it was bake off Thursday) I was so reluctant to put out my container that I waited until the last half an hour so everyone was stuffed after lunch knowing full well that meant I also got to indulge in the car on the way home. At no point was anyone holding a gun to my head, demanding for me to finish pretty much half a batch of brownies. 

The recipe is pretty similar to my Old Fashioned brownie recipe in the sense that they are very much grown up recipes, they go great with sophisticated ice creams and coffee's and as this recipe calls for self-raising flour they have the soft and fluffiness of a cake yet the typical brownie chew. The coffee used in this recipe is what makes it so grown up. I used a really flavorsome Parisien coffee by Nescafe and it really gave the brownies that mature, rich aftertaste I wanted. I also added a little orange blossom flavouring rather than vanilla. The Smarties mini-eggs served their purpose adding a fun, Easter theme to the brownies and inside the mixture they added a lovely sweet-smooth, chocolatey texture. 

This recipe is by Mary Berry with my own variations.


Ingredients 
300g plain/dark chocolate (39% cocoa solids)
225g butter
3 level tsp coffee
2 tsp hot water
3 large eggs
225g caster sugar
1tsp orange blossom or vanilla essence
75g self-raising flour
2 packets of mini eggs




Method
- Preheat your oven to 190 deg C/Fan 170 deg C/gas . Grease and line your baking tin with non-stick parchment.
- Break up the chocolate into pieces and melt slowly with the butter in a heat proof bowl over a pan of hot water, stirring occasionally. Leave to cool. 
- Dissolve coffee in hot water and in a separate bowl (to chocolate and butter mixture) mix coffee with eggs, sugar and flavouring. Gradually beat in the chocolate mixture, then fold in the flour.
- Pour the mixture into your tin and then carefully poke in your desired amount of mini eggs. 
- Bake for 40-45 minutes or until the brownies have a crusty top or until a skewer poked into the centre comes out clean.
- Leave the brownies to cool in the tin for around 10 minutes, then turn onto a wire cooling rack. Once cooled completely cut the brownies into squares.
- Store in an airtight tin.




1 comment:

  1. I just nominated you for Liebster award!

    http://mychickchats.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete