Brownies
When I was thinking of an introduction to this recipe, an old childhood memory slithered itself into focus in my slow Monday morning brain. I think I was in Standard One or Two; in every school term, there was this report card where we had to write down 3 choices for ‘Ambition’. I, being a little girl, just simply put cookie-cutter answers like ‘Teacher’ or ‘Doctor’. In my memory I distinctly remembered putting an entry for ‘Baker’ in one of those report cards. Must be all that Sunshine bread I was stuffing my face in those days, looking out for the roti man was the highlight of every evening.
Fast forward 20-odd years later, I am nowhere near becoming a Baker, so to speak, having baked nothing that didn’t have the word ‘pre-mix’ in the product package. So, imagine the look of surprise my hubby gave when I announced I wanted to buy an electric oven for our kitchen. “Imagine all the roasts, cakes and cookies I can make for us!” I exclaimed. He, no doubt, was mentally dreading a future full of soggy/burnt cakes or rock-hard cookies.
I went ahead and bought an electric oven anyway. A local brand with 24 liter capacity, which I think can fit a modest roast chicken.
To christen the new oven, I had decided to bake brownies from scratch. Cakes were too dry to my liking, and anyway, brownie recipes looked simple enough. So, after a few hours of surfing, this was what I found.
Ingredients:
- 400g white sugar
- 225g butter
- 45g cocoa powder
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 4 eggs
- 140g all-purpose flour
- ½ tsp. baking powder
- 1 tsp. salt
- 2 handfuls of walnuts or almonds (or as nutty as you want it)
Steps:
- Melt butter
- Mix all the ingredients in the order given
- Pour mixed ingredients in a greased pan measuring 9 x 13 inches.
- Place pan in oven pre-heated to 180 degrees Celcius for 20 – 30 mins.
- At 20 mins, poke the center of the brownie with a toothpick. If it comes out clean, it’s done. If wet, bake it some more.
I ended up baking it for more than 30 mins, closer to 40 mins, as I used a glass dish. At first, I panicked a little when the center was still wet after 30 mins, but decided to bake it a while more while praying the top crust doesn’t burn. In the end, it turned out ok, albeit with the top 4 corners a little hard but chewy. Also, most of the nuts sank to the bottom of the brownie.
My first baked brownie
A slice for taste
Passed the test of hubby’s taste buds! He even liked the hard chewy corners, for some weird reason. Overall, was quite happy with my first attempt at baking from scratch. Next time, I’m gonna throw a handful of chopped chocolates into the mix, and just place a handful of nuts at the top of the mix before chucking the pan into the oven.
On a side note, smoke was coming out of my handheld mixer towards the end. May have to fork out $$$ to buy a new one, sob sob! Of course, hubby agreed as he’s dreaming of more baked goodies coming out of our brand-new electric oven…..
Liked this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!
