Choc Fudge Brownies

Sinful choc fudge brownies

Who could have resist these dense and dark temptations

Choc Fudge brownies with Italian Vanilla Gelato

Brownies...Who would resist them? Brownies are actually a cross breed between cakes and biscuits. They are not cakey like cakes and not as crunchy as biscuits. As a matter of fact, they are simple baking invention which would not go wrong as long as you have the correct recipe and methods in hand. I've done a little bit of homework on brownies- and it appeared that these sinful creation was created in 1893, by a chef in Palmer House Hotel Chicago, USA- it was a request from an American socialite Bertha Palmer (yes, she is the wife to the owner of the hotel).

Yes, back to the story of brownies- I first baked brownies when I was a 16 year old school girl. I had baked brownies with my eldest sister, out of curiosity. It was a recipe from a Malay magazine back then. Oh my, it was awful- something was not even right with the recipe, it was so sweet and we couldn't even take another slice. Those brownies were straight away given to our opposite -door neighbour. So, that was the last time I had baked brownies. Then, I have discovered that home- grown bakery cum restaurant - Secret Recipe, have their own versions of brownies. But somehow rather, I was not tempted.... Then, as fate intervened- I have ordered brownies for a meeting from my friend, Erna Malia of (http://piece-of-cake-desserts.blogspot.com/). Oh gosh, her brownies were complete heaven. I couldn't even have the last piece to bring back. They were gone....right in the meeting. So, I was inspired by brownies again. Then one fine day, I have discovered a brownie recipe, from a foreign magazine. I instantly bought that magazine. I kept promising myself to bake brownies again, telling myself this time it is going to be all right. And guess what, it turned out to be a sold-out among friends and yours truly. As I cut the brownies into pieces, I kept popping them in my mouth and only brought 3/4 of the tray to work. Apparently, friends kept asking for the recipe- and here I am, sharing the recipe as I have repeatedly baked these choc fudge brownies. Every time, I brought them -brownies- to work place, friends kept asking for more brownies and its recipe. So, now goes the recipe....

Ingredients

3/4 cup butter, unsalted please (if you may have them)

4 oz unsweetened choc, chopped, ( I have used hershey's bar)

4 oz semisweet choc, chopped

* You can use bitter sweet choc to replace the unsweetened choc- it turned out to be nicer -from my experiment...

* You can also put 1/2 cup of unsweetened choc powder for the unsweetened choc (if any)

1/2 cup plain flour

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder ( I have used Bournville's Cadbury's Cocoa)

1/2 tsp salt

6 eggs (large)

1/2 cup caster sugar

1 1/2 cup soft brown sugar

2 tsp of vanilla extract

How

1) Preheat oven to 150C. Line baking tray, grease it with butter. Baking tray -it should be square and not that deep- or you can just leave out the parchment paper and just grease it with butter...

2) In a saucepan, melt butter and chocs - low heat. Stir using wooden spoon. Remove from heat.

3) Using mixer, beat eggs until blended. Add sugar -bit by bit, beat 10 minutes or until tripled in volume.

4) Sift flour, cocoa powder and salt.

5) In the egg and sugar mixture, fold in melted chocs and vanilla. Fold in flour mixture. Pour into pan. Bake 28 to 32 mins. You can test if it is ready by inserting a skewer in the middle, if the skewer comes out clean, your brownies are ready. Cool and cut into pieces.

Happy Friday, everyone...

p/s: Eat them with Italian gelato and you'll fly to the moon.... ;)