Fun with Chocolates

Last night, just before bedtime, my elder boy requested that I bake him some brownies the next day. He has been craving for brownies for quite some time already. We checked through a few recipes and decided to try this walnuts and chocolate chip brownies from a book which I bought recently. The description and the texture of the brownies look really attractive to me: "These chunky chocolate brownies are moist, dark and deeply satisfying. They are delicious with a morning cup of coffee and will definitely boost morale on a dreary day."

As promised, the first thing I did this morning was to bake a batch of brownies. It is a rather simple and straight forward recipe. It took me less than half-an-hour to get the brownies into the oven. I omitted the walnuts from the recipe as both my boys reminded me that they didn't want any nuts in their brownies.


I am so glad that the brownies turn out beautifully! They are rather thick (in terms of height) unlike my previous attempts, the brownies were too dense and were usually very flat and thin. I like the slightly flaky and crisp crust, with a moist, cake-like layer on top and it gets fudgy nearer the bottom. This is by far my best brownies which I have made from scratch, and it uses sunflower oil instead of butter...so much 'healthier' than another recipe from the same book that requires almost an entire block of butter! My boys couldn't really wait for me to finish my photo-taking session, they kept asking when they could try a piece of the brownies...and guess what my younger one was "doing" while I was trying to get the best lighting for my photos?


What can I say, but to give them each a piece right away!

Each time if I use any melted chocolates for baking, I will let my younger boy to help "clean-up" the bowl...he will lick up every single trace of melted chocolate. This time, I used the left over chocolates and made this:

I learnt this from the Martha Stewart's show...simply use a brush (I used a chopstick), dip it with melted chocolate and paint funny faces on the inside of a clean glass. Chill the glass in the fridge to let the chocolate set before filling it with cold milk. The 3 of us had fun painting our own glasses. They certainly look ugly but adorable, aren't they?!



Nut and Chocolate Chip Brownies

Ingredients
(makes 16)

150g semisweet chocolate, chopped
120ml sunflower oil
215g light brown sugar (I cut down to 200g)**
2 eggs
5ml vanilla essence
65g self-raising flour
4 tablespoon cocoa powder (unsweetened)
4 tablespoon milk chocolate chips
75g chopped walnuts (I omitted this)

**latest update: I further reduced the sugar amount to 180g and the texture or taste was not affected.

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degC. Lightly grease a shallow 19cm/7.5 inch square pan.
2. Melt chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water.
3. With an electric mixer (a manual whisk works well too), beat together oil, sugar, eggs and vanilla essence in a mixing bowl.
4. Stir in the melted chocolate then beat well until evenly mixed.
5. Sift the flour and cocoa powder into the batter. With a spatula, fold thoroughly until all the flour mixture incorporates into the batter.
6. Stir in walnuts and chocolate chips. Mix well.
7. Pour the mixture into the prepared square tin. Spread the mixture evenly to the edges. (The mixture is rather sticky and gooey.)
8. Bake for about 30 ~ 35 mins until the top is firm and crusty. Cool in the pan before cutting into squares.

Recipe Source: The Cookie and Biscuit Bible