chocolate brownie

Today as I walked out of the house for school, it was snowing. It didn't stop snowing all morning. It also didn't settle. But my children loved it. We played hide & seek and caught snowflakes in our mouths & mittens and did a whole lot of learning about it all. 

So, snow means that it is cold around these parts, which makes me want to go into hibernation. It also makes me want an endless supply of hot drinks & chocolate. As I don't have any chocolate in the house, I'll post about the chocolate brownie I baked last week while I decide whether I want some enough to leave my cozy little nest to go and get some.


Gluten Free Brownies
ingredients 
200g dark chocolate (minimum of 60% cocoa solids)
100g / 7 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temp
250g / 1 cup caster sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract (always use extract rather than essence for the best flavour. If you only have essence, I'd be inclined to omit this from the recipe.)
60g / half a cup rice flour (or plain/ all purpose flour if you eat gluten)
60g / half a cup cocoa
70g / one third of a cup dark chocolate chunks. (I cut up a bar of chocolate rather than using chocolate chips, as I think that chips are a little too small to be appreciated in the brownie.)

method
1) Grease & line an 8" square baking tin & pre-heat oven to 180C / gas mark 4 / 350F
2) Break up the chocolate and place in a glass bowl, along with the butter. Melt over a pan of simmering water, or in the microwave, then leave to cool for about 10 minutes.
3) In a separate bowl, or in a freestanding mixer, beat together the sugar and eggs until light and frothy - about 4 minutes.
4) Beat in the cooled butter and chocolate mixture to the sugar and eggs.
5) Beat in the flour and cocoa until just combined.
6) Gently stir in the chocolate chunks.
6) Pour into the prepared baking tin and bake for 18 - 20 mins or until just firm to touch - be careful not to overbake, as the brownies will continue to cook when out of the oven from the residual heat
7) Enjoy - warm or cold with cream, ice cream or no cream, whatever your preference!

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