My Loaded Brownies

These were the brownies I was talking about. The one that needed a re-shoot. Brownies were the first thing I baked when I made a decision one fateful day in 2011 to start baking. From what I read, brownies are the easiest bakes ever and novice bakers should start with a brownie. And that's what I did.

After watching countless videos on Joy of Baking, I baked my first brownie. It was rather historic for me because up until then, I was never interested in baking. I used to help my auntie when she baked but even that did not spark any interest in me. In fact, whenever I watched cooking shows on TV, I would immediately switch channels when baking shows came on.

So why the change of heart? It is a long story and you can read about it here. In a way, baking saved my life. I have since graduated to cheesecakes, chocolate cakes, cookies and God knows what hah..hah... This is my first brownie post because all these years I have not been able to take a decent photo of my brownies.

Quite a while back, I chanced upon an Apple Walnut Brownie in the cookbook In Love With Cakes. But that brownie never came to fruition due to lack of ingredients. When I had apples, I did not have walnuts. And when I had walnuts, I had no apples. So I got fed up. And decided to substitute apples and walnuts with this :

I know. This is not a healthy thing to do. But hey, there wasn't a single apple in the house, alright? And so my Loaded Brownies was born. After all, I have seen people stuffing Ferrero Rocher, caramel, cream cheese and whatnot into their brownies with wonderful results. 

Chocolate and butter.

Anyway, I got to know about this Cadbury chocolate when I read Yen's post. And when I walked into 99 Speedmart, the chocolate bar was staring at me. Apa lagi? Buy! Buy! Buy!

Melt the whole lot over a pot of simmering water.

But I met with some obstacles while gathering my ingredients. My kitchen scale ran out of battery. OK, I have spare ones in the drawer but when I removed the old battery, I realised that it was a square 9V battery and not two AA sized batteries. Drat!

Luckily I have a spare kitchen scale, my old faithful which I purchased from Tesco many years ago for a mere RM15.00. It works fine except that the on/off button is defective. I have to press really hard for it to turn on.

Chop the apple and walnut substitute into chunks hee..hee...

Then when I got to my flour, I noticed that it had gone funky. Double drat! There was a grey layer of stuff over it and I had to throw the whole lot. Luckily I had a spare packet of flour. Saved! After that, it was smooth sailing.

Fold into the brownie batter.

So this is what I did before I mixed the chocolate into the brownie batter. I chopped it up into small chunks. And before I did that, I put the chocolate bar into the fridge because in our tropical heat, the chocolate melts and it would have been a very messy and sticky affair.

Pour batter into lined pan and bake!

It is very important not to overbake a brownie. Always err on the side of underbaking. Don' wait until the skewer inserted into the center comes out completely clean.  Once the top is set and the skewer comes out with some moist crumbs stuck to it, stop!

Now let me tell you  little secret. When I slice a brownie, I always reserve the center piece for myself because that is the best slice. It is very soft and moist. And I tell you, only one word is worthy of that slice of brownie I bit into - ECSTASEH! Gawd! It was so sinfully good. Packed full of chocolaty greatness. This is a bake worthy of an encore or two. Try it!

Loaded Chocolate Chunk Brownies

Recipe sources : Adapted from In Love with Cakes (page 97)

Ingredients :

- 120g butter

- 160g dark chocolate

- 2 large eggs

- 30g brown sugar (if you have a sweet tooth, you need to add more. I find that the chocolate chunks are quite sweet and therefore I reduced the sugar)

- 70g self raising flour (sifted)

-1/4 tsp cinnamon powder

- 1 bar (160g) Cadbury, chopped into small chunks

Method :

1. Preheat oven to 160C and line an 8" square pan with baking paper.

2. Melt chocolate and butter in a bowl over a simmering pot of water. Set aside to cool.

3. Meanwhile, whisk sugar, cinnamon powder and eggs till well combined.

4. Pour the egg mixture into the chocolate/butter mixture and stir till well combined.

5. Add flour a little at a time, and gently fold into the batter until just combined. Do not overmix.

6. Fold in the chopped chocolate chunks.

7. Pour batter into the baking pan and bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the brownie comes out with a bit of crumbs sticking to it. Do not overbake! (Mine was done in 20 minutes).

8. Cool the brownie on a baking rack.

This post is also linked to Cook Your Books #25 hosted by Joyce of Kitchen Flavours.