Adorkable brownies: a recipe

ADORKABLE BROWNIES – how to heal the hurt with baking

It's Sunday evening. That means school tomorrow, or as I like to call it indentured servitude. So, it's at about this time on a Sunday evening that I like to make and eat some kind of sweet treat so I forget about my A-level angst and worry about my imminent sugar coma instead.  

200g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids)

80g unsalted butter, room temperature

200g caster sugar

110g plain flour

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 pinch salt

I level teaspoon of baking powder

3 eggs

50g roughly chopped milk chocolate

50g roughly chopped white chocolate

Secret adorkable ingredient 

Heat oven to 180 degrees, 160 degrees (fan oven), or gas mark 4.

Line an 20 cm square tin with greaseproof paper (or make life complicated and grease and flour the tin instead!)

Break the dark chocolate into small chunks in a medium sized bowl (large enough to hold entire batter mixture,) cover with cling film and melt for 30 seconds a time in a microwave on high until almost melted. Burnt chocolate is a beast to clean up.

Chop up the butter and add gradually to chocolate, stirring until it's all melted and combined. In a beaker, add eggs and vanilla. Beat together, then add to chocolate mixture and stir until combined.

Sift together salt, sieved flour, cocoa powder and the sugar. Add to mix slowly so it won't clump. Finally add the milk and white chocolate pieces folding them into the mixture so they're evenly distributed.

It's now that you can add your secret adorkable ingredient. In the past, though I don't like to brag, I've had great brownie success with chilli powder (apart from the time I gave the jar an enthusiastic shake and the lid fell off and it was like a chilli powder apocalypse,) wasabi paste and chunky peanut butter. You know how hot/peanutty you like your brownies so season according to taste. I have not had great success adding Haribo to my brownies before the cooking process, just so you know.

Pour batter into pan, bang it around to level it, and pop in oven for 30 minutes. Gently shake tin and if it's still a bit wobbly, cook it for another 5 minutes.

Brownies should be very moist when done, but you don't want globs of batter left on the knife you stick in them to see if they're cooked.

Let them cool on a cooling rack completely. Cut into squares. Consume and heal the heartache with these chocolate bad boys.

Secret tip: Brownies freeze really well and you can pop one out of the freezer and scarf down with ice-cream anytime - no need to defrost!! 

(With humungous thanks to Sarah Williams, baking guru.)