Sweet Beginings with Eggless Chocolate Brownies

Apart from bearing testimony to the day when I finally overcame my laziness and "finalllyy" started Killer On The Plate, this post marks two other beginnings, both of which are sweet as...
We finallyyy (that's the last one I promise) moved into a larger, prettier house in the South of Auckland, just a day before Deepavali, the Indian festival of lights. The festival itself called for sweet celebrations, and the new house warranted further excuses for Double Dessert!


These Eggless Chocolate Brownies with Boysenberry Ice Cream served both the occasions perfectly. They were a super-hit Halloween Treat on the following day, marking the beginning of a beautiful new friendship, one that I will cherish forever..... Read On..

Probably the best thing about these Brownies is that no fancy ingredients are required and everything that goes in them (All Purpose Flour, Cocoa powder- even grated chocolate will do, baking powder, castor sugar, butter, milk and vanilla essence) are usually always around in my kitchen, which leaves the whole premediated decide-your-menu-before-grocery-shopping-thingy out, something I must confess I am not very good at. And even better: within an hour the scrumptious hog-a-licious brownies are ready!

To make the brownie batter, I first threw in a big blob of unsalted butter (150 grams) and 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder in a microwave safe bowl (we couldn't resist the temptation and threw in some chunks of Cadbury's Almonds Chocolate Bar as well) and warmed it till the butter and chocolate had melted to what looked like a yummy chocolate smoothie (delicious already:D). At about this time I also started preheating my oven to 200 °C.

This delicious looking (and tasting- yes I couldn't resist licking some) chocolate smoothie was blended and beaten with 1 and 1/4 cup castor sugar and a dash of Vanilla essence. 1 and 1/4 cup All Purpose Flour + 1/2 teaspoon baking powder was also added and mixed well. At this point some chopped nuts (almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts) can also be added. The resulting mixture is rather thick and dry, so milk is blended in to till the cake batter reaches a pourable, but not runny, consistency (about 3/4 cup).

The brownie batter was then poured in an 8 inch square baking dish that had been greased with butter and dusted evenly with All Purpose Flour and baked at 180 °C till "done".

The brownies get "done" when they have risen to almost twice the height and a toothpick comes clean through them. I would suggest that it is worth investing the time to FIND a toothpick for this and NOT USE A KNIFE instead (who in their right mind does that? No prizes for guessing) unless one fancies some badly scarred why-so-serious brownies.

Once the brownies are out of the oven, let them cool completely ( the patience required for this is killing, I agree) before turning the baking dish over and pushing the cake out on a wire rack. Cut it into small squares with a sharp knife and drizzle chocolate Sauce (we used Hershey's) over them. The warm brownies are gooey, soft, but firm and just delectable whether alone or with Ice cream (which happily masked the knife scars).

We stored the left over brownies in the refrigerator over-night. They had become hard and had to be microwaved for a couple of minutes to make them soft and spongy again (hubby dear reckons they were even better the next day).


Sam, my little neighbour (dressed as a corpse), loved these goodies and has become my "best friend" ever since. She's been warding off other little "phantoms" away from our house, occasionally presenting her own sweets to them in our stead. She has also rewarded us with a lovely card. I think this Halloween she has tricked my heart. :).

Eggless Chocolate Brownies with Boysenberry Ice Cream are on the way to:

bakefest@vardhiniskitchen

Love Lock with Sweets