Chocolate Brownies

It’s that time of year – it’s winter and we’re peckish! We usually have nuts, veggie crisps and ‘biltong’ (almost the same as beef jerky) in the house, but sometimes the sweet tooth gets the better of us and we crave chocolate.

Every now and then I treat Berto to chocolate brownies when he gets home after a long day at work. And this recipe is the easiest and quickest you will ever come across.

Put it on the table:

Only a few ingredients are needed to make these brownies. It has a gooey texture and a crackly top. If you want, you can throw in chopped walnuts or cranberries, but there’s nothing wrong with sprinkling chocolate drops on top.

Ingredients

½ cup unsalted butter (melted and hot)

1 tablespoon cooking oil

1 cup 250ml white sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

½ cup flour

½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder

¼ teaspoon salt

Handful of chocolate drops

Preheat the oven to 175°C/350°F and grease an oven proof dish or baking pan. Combine hot melted butter, oil and sugar together in a bowl. Whisk well for about a minute. Add the eggs and vanilla extract and beat until lighter in colour (another minute).

Mix butter, oil and sugar

Add eggs and vanilla extract and beat well

Sift in flour, cocoa powder and salt. Gently fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until JUST combined. (The secret here is do NOT over beat as doing so will affect the texture of your brownies).

Sift dry ingredients and gently fold into wet ingredients

Pour batter into prepared dish, smoothing the top out evenly. Sprinkle chocolate drops over. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the centre of the brownies no longer jiggles and is just set to the touch. (If testing with a toothpick, it should come out dirty for that gooey textured brownie).

Chocolate brownies ready for the oven

Confession time: There is one thing I have a hard time resisting ever since I was a little girl standing by my mother’s side when she baked chocolate cake. I always swipe my finger over the chocolate covered cake spatula to taste the raw chocolate batter.

“Old habits die hard”

Once the chocolate brownies are baked, remove from the oven and let cool to room temperature before slicing.

Heavenly chocolate brownies

I made myself a cup of rooibos tea and added a teaspoon of honey – it was time to enjoy one of the best chocolate brownies ever.

Rooibos tea and brownie time

And don’t worry, there was more than enough brownies for Berto when he got home.