Yesterday Alice helped me make some little brownie 'bites' that I planned to bag up as something that could be sold at a coffee morning at her nursery. As brownies are quite easy to make (you're basically mixing together a sloppy batter) they're a great choice when cooking with children – and, of course, children love them!
This recipe is based on Nigella Lawson's from How to be a Domestic Goddess that I tweaked to make it more shallow and easier to cut into small cubes. You can include 200g roughly chopped walnuts (or hazelnuts or brazil nuts which I love), but I didn't here as nursery schools get a bit paranoid about all things nutty.
247g soft unsalted butter
247g best-quality dark chocolate (here I used Green & Blacks 70%)
4 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
330g caster sugar
148g plain flour
1 teaspoon salt
Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4. Line the baking pan and take it right up the sides – using kitchen foil makes this very easy.
In a large, heavy-based saucepan, slowly melt together the butter and chocolate, giving it a stir towards the end. Meanwhile, in a bowl or large measuring jug, beat the eggs, sugar and vanilla essence.
In a separate bowl, measure the flour and salt (and nuts if using). Once the chocolate-butter mixture has cooled down a little, mix in the eggs and sugar, followed by the dry ingredients and beat well until you have a thick, glossy, dark brown batter.
Pour the batter into the prepared baking pan and bake for about 25 minutes until a cocktail stick comes out cleanish. It's better to remove it from the oven sooner, rather than later to prevent it from being too dry. It's easy to overcook as it continues cooking for a while away from the heat.
Allow it to cool in the tin before turning out and cutting into cubes or squares. We ended up with about 50 small cubes (about 4cm square), and here are Alice and Daddy enjoying some of the trimmings from around the edge.
