Brownies
300 million calories (probably!), 60 minutes to prepare, 5 out of 5 for taste!
I’ve been baking (and eating!) brownies for years, and this recipe (from my friend Alison) is just about the best I’ve tried. Made with real chocolate instead of cocoa powder, these little cakes are easy to prepare, super-chocolatey and ready to eat in around 60 minutes. They’re the perfect accompaniment to a cuppa after a hard day at work, or, if you can wait a bit longer, you can serve them as a dessert with custard or ice-cream.
The calorie count is quite high, but they’re utterly worth it. This recipe makes 24 brownies, but remember if you save it in MM365, you can use the servings-changer to adjust the ingredient quantities / number of portions.
Enjoy!
Ingredients
- 550g good quality plain chocolate
- 225g butter
- 3 eggs
- 30ml freshly made coffee
- 100g sugar
- 75g self-raising flour
- 175g chopped walnuts
- 5ml vanilla essence (optional)
Method
- Start off by greasing and lining a baking tin measuring about 30x24 cm.
- Next, roughly chop 225g of the chocolate and put to one side. I tend to use chocolate with 70% cocoa solids for a better flavour.
- After that, melt the remaining chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water ('au bain-marie').
- Mix the eggs, coffee and sugar (caster or granulated both work fine) together in a separate large bowl then add in the melted chocolate mixture.
- Next add in the flour, walnuts, chopped chocolate and vanilla essence (if you’re using it).
- Promptly pour the mixture into the baking tin and then cook for around 40 minutes at 160°C – until it’s firm to the touch in the middle. Be careful not to overcook the brownies or the lovely, gooey texture will be ruined.
- Once cooked, leave to cool while still in the tin then turn out and cut into the desired number of pieces. Some people like to cut off the edges to make perfect squares, but I don’t bother with this.
- The brownies can be reheated if serving as a dessert, although I prefer them cold and served with warm custard.
NB This recipe makes 24 cakes, but if you save it to your MyMeals365 app, you can change the number of servings and the app will work out the exact quantities of each ingredient you need.