Sometimes I think that my kitchen is haunted. She’s a friendly phantom and seems to make an appearance right around the same time as my sweet tooth. I like to think it’s the voice of Nigella Lawson stirring and coaxing the domestic goddess inside me.
She appeared last Sunday and although I’d already indulged in fresh goats cheese and ripe tomatoes from Bastille Richard Lenoir market, I felt an overwhelming desire for brownies. Now given that Parisian supermarkets on a Sunday are about as lively as a graveyard, I knew it’d have to be a makeshift recipe, in other words, use-what-you’ve-got-and-make-it-work. And so I scoured the pantry and managed to retrieve a few gems…
- 100g unsalted butter
- 100g dessert chocolate (you can add more milk or white choc if your heart so desires)
- 2 eggs
- 140g caster sugar
- 4 tablespoons of cocoa powder
- A handful of walnuts and a few tablespoons of ground almonds
- 40g plain flour
- A pinch of baking powder
- * Don’t forget to preheat the oven to 180 degrees *
Channelling Juliette Binoche from the movie Chocolat, I got to work melting chopped butter and chocolate over a pan of simmering water. I then set aside the bowl of molten chocolate lava to cool to room temperature. In the meantime, I whisked the eggs and caster sugar to high heaven.
When the sugary egg mixture becomes a very pale daffodil yellow, pour in the melted chocolate and gently fold through until it has all combined. Sieve the baking powder, flour and cocoa powder into the mixture and fold through again. Next add the nuts or white chocolate chips if you have any (sadly I didn’t) and give it all one final stir. Pour into a pre-greased or paper-lined tin and bake for 20-25 minutes.
As I only had limited amounts of each ingredient, this batch made about 10 little squares. If you can double up the ingredients and add an extra egg, you’re looking at a decent supply of brownies that you can also freeze and save for a rainy day.
How do I like mine? With a scoop of vanilla ice cream and fresh out of the oven so that the nuts are warm and the choc chips are gooey.
How much?
It depends on what you already have, but you could get most ingredients for under €5.
Where?
My petite cucina
What’s playing today?
My favourite Stones song…
