Weekend Wonderings

This week, I was told I can come off my medication, and that was the best news I'd had all year.  No more rat poison!  And news like that deserves the world's best brownies. 


These are the brownies I turn to in times of crisis, triumph, love and loss.  They are a comfort and a joy.  They remind me of why eating is good, of why sometimes, excess is the right thing to do.


They are so good.  I have won over sworn enemies with these brownies.  They are my secret.  Until now.  


Happy weekend, readers.   

Recipe (and image) from BBC Good Food, I've adapted it slightly through years of practice....


Ingredients:


185g unsalted butter
185g best dark chocolate (70%,folks)
85g plain flour
40g cocoa powder
100g  good-quality white chocolate (again, don't skimp)
3 large eggs
275g golden caster sugar


In the original  recipe, the instructions are much, much more detailed.  If you're new to brownies, follow them.  If you're an old hand, follow my steps:


Melt together butter and  best dark chocolate in a medium bowl.  Leave the melted mixture to cool to room temperature.  Try not to eat it - it will put you in a diabetic coma.


While you wait for the chocolate to cool, position a shelf in the middle of your oven and turn the oven on to fan 160C/conventional 180C/gas 4. Line a shallow 20cm square tin with baking parchment. 


Sieve plain flour and cocoa powder over a medium bowl.


Chop the white chocolate into small pieces on a board.


Mix eggs and golden caster sugar together with an electric mixer on maximum speed, until the mixture looks thick and creamy, like a milk shake. This can take 3-8 minutes, depending on how powerful your mixer is, so don't lose heart. 


Pour the cooled chocolate mixture over the eggy mousse, then gently fold together with a rubber spatula. Do this slowly so you don't knock out the air.  


Hold the sieve over the bowl of eggy chocolate mixture and re-sift the cocoa and flour mixture. Gently fold in this powder. The mixture will look dry and dusty at first, and then become gungy and fudgy.  Finally, stir in the white and milk chocolate chunks until they're dotted throughout. 


Spend five minutes licking the beater.  This is a key step.


Pour the mixture into the prepared tin, ease the mixture into the corners of the tin and paddle the spatula from side to side across the top to level it. 


Bake for 25 minutes.  When the buzzer goes, open the oven, pull the shelf out a bit and gently shake the tin. If the brownie wobbles in the middle, it's not quite done, so slide it back in and bake for another 5 minutes until the top has a shiny, papery crust and the sides are just beginning to come away from the tin. Take out of the oven.


THE HARD BIT


Leave the whole thing in the tin until completely cold.  You will not want to, but you must because otherwise it will fall apart, like mine did here. Slide out.  Cut into quarters, then cut each quarter into four squares and finally into triangles. They do (allegedly) keep in an airtight container for a good two weeks and in the freezer for up to a month, but if you can do that, we can never be friends.