Barely Useful

Okay, the pretzels are optional here but I do love to mix sweet and salt. I went a step further and threw in some vanilla fudge because I just can’t stop myself. You can add white choc chips, nuts and dried fruit or some ginger biscuits or mint Oreos. The real joy here is that you can throw in any tasty yummies you like or just choose to make plain old brownies. Either way, you’ve got an easy-to-make and easy-to-clean-up sweet-treat recipe right here.

Time to make: 35 mins overall

Mouths: feeds 4-6

Ingredients:

• large block dark chocolate (about 110g so just a bit less than a large block)
• 110g butter
• 340g of icing sugar (or caster sugar)
• 344g cup of plain four
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
• Pinch of salt
• Something to throw in. I added fudge chunks and salted pretzels but you can use white choc chips or some nuts or dried fruit or something. Whatever you use make sure you break it up into bite-size bits. For the pretzels I just crushed them in my hand and dropped them in. Try to use up what you already have without buying more stuff.

Other stuff:

• A mixing bowl or something of that size
• A saucepan for the mixing bowl to sit in and do the initial melting
• An 8×8 baking tray. Line it with baking paper otherwise you’ll need to heavily grease it with your butter.
• A wooden spoon or spatula; anything large like that to do the mixing

Method:

First turn the oven to 175° C.

Next, break up all of the chocolate and throw it into the mixing bowl with the butter. Now, melt them down together. I did this by just boiling the kettle and sitting the mixing bowl in a saucepan of the boiled water and leaving it for five minutes. If the chocolate hasn’t melted just boil the kettle again and change the hot water in the saucepan and give it another 5 minutes. Once you have a melted goo add the sugar and vanilla and stir it in. Next, beat in the two eggs and when that’s incorporated stir in the flour. Add a pinch of salt and then your fillings.

Pour the mixture into the baking tray and cook for 25 minutes and not a second more otherwise they’ll be dry.