American Brownie

Source:  Robyn Martin Bakes

American Brownie

Ingredients:

250g butter
½ cup cocoa
1 ½ cups sugar
4 eggs
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Method:

1. Melt butter in a saucepan large enough to mix all the ingredients.  Mix in cocoa.  Remove from heat and stir in sugar.


2. Add eggs and beat well using a wooden spoon.  Sift flour and baking powder into the mixture.  Add vanilla essence and mix to combine.


3. Pour into a 20 x 30cm sponge roll tin with a baking paper-lined base.


4. Bake at 180C for 25-30 minutes or until brownie springs back when lightly touched.  Cut into bars while still warm.  Ice with chocolate icing if wished.

Robyn’s Tip:
There are many versions of the popular chocolate brownie recipe.  Some use chocolate to flavour as well as making a contribution to the fat in the recipe.  I don't always have chocolate in my pantry (that's because the chocolate lovers in the family eat it) so prefer to use my cocoa-based chocolate brownie as my faithful standby.  You can add chocolate pieces, nuts, essences or dried fruit to the mixture for a different flavour and texture.

Ms OWW’s Notes:
I completely agree with Robyn's note above about it being a faithful standby.  We usually have cocoa, but not chocolate in the house.  The all-in-one-pan mixing means an extraordinarily quick and simple recipe to make.  It has already become a perfect standby for giving as a thank you gift or a homemade goodie to share over tea with visiting family and friends.  I can't recommend this enough.  I hope you try it and enjoy it.

Robyn Martin Bakes

I must recommend this book to you.  Sadly I could find no one selling it on line.  The closest was The Book Depository, but they have it as out of stock at the moment.

I checked it out of the library about a month or so ago and found that I was able to make more than half a dozen recipes with what meagre stocks were in our cupboards.  That's a rarity in my baking experience.
Since then I have had a birthday, and as a lovely gift this arrived.

So far we have tried and liked the following recipes:

• American brownies


• Ginger crisps (freeze the batter and you can roll it out to make gingerbread men too)


• Louise cake


• Belgium slice


• Gateau Basque


• Cheese scones

The only let down has been the cheese scones recipe.

But, to prove to you how yummy the other recipes are, I will share the American Brownie recipe in the next post.  It's for those who like their brownies just moist, not doughy or gooey in the centre.

If you find an online retailer with this in stock, let me know and I'll update this post to include a link to them.