It's All About the Food Today

First up, let me say I am waaaaay behind in my comment replying. Sorry, life has been busy. And a sick kid was tossed into the mix. It happens. Something had to give and emails was it.

Meanwhile, I have been in the kitchen just about all day. Well ever since I returned home from procuring a ridiculous amount of food. We have friends coming round tomorrow and I have been prepping for that as well as dinner tonight.

Seriously, I have cooked the chicken parts, made the bbq sauce to finish them off tomorrow, made a potato salad, made some humous, made garlic bread, prepped the veg for dinner tonight and got a herb crust on a side of salmon ready for cooking.

But the best bit are the brownies that I have been making. This is not my recipe. It is lifted directly out of the Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream cook book. The brownie recipe is for brownies to be used in their chocolate fudge brownie ice cream - which is divine. But the brownies are so good that they are worth making in their own right. So I did.

There is only one thing I change about this recipe and that is I don't cook them in a 9"x13" baking pan. As you can see by the photo I use cupcake cases. I find the tray bake leaves gooey brownie in the middle of the pan that is just a bit too gooey for me. Fine when I am using the brownie for ice cream but I prefer a little more structure when snacking on them. Cooked in the cupcake cases they have a nice crispy outside and a lovely moist gooey inside.

Recipe -

4 oz (100g) dark chocolate
1/2cup (1 stick/4 ozs) butter
4 large eggs at room temperature
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup plain flour

Preheat oven to 350F/180C/Gas Mark 4.

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler over simmering water. Let cool to room temperature before using in the recipe. (Or, like me, melt the butter and chocolate together in the microwave and stick your finger in to make sure it isn't too hot to cook the eggs in the batter.)

Beat the eggs and salt until very fluffy. Gradually add the sugar and vanilla and beat well. (I whack it all in in one go but I am telling you the 'proper' way.) Fold in the cooled chocolate mixture. Then fold in the flour until just incorporated. As there is no leavening agent in these brownies you want to fold carefully to retain as much of the air that you have beaten into the mixture as possible.

Pour the batter into the cupcake cases - about 80% full. Pop into the oven for approximately 25 minutes. The tops should be slightly cracked and crisp looking when ready.

Eat and enjoy. We will be having ours tomorrow with vanilla ice cream, chocolate sauce and squirty cream. Everything is better with squirty cream, isn't it?

Susan