Not birthday cake, birthday brownies..

So, it was Joel's brothers birthday last week - which meant a mid week bake (YAY), BUT he was going away for the Easter break so I couldn't make him a cake unfortunately. I went with Brownies, everyone loves brownies, they are easy to transport and are the richest, gooey-ist things going - which is always good in my books. I really love Jamie Oliver's brownie recipe - I have never tried any other since finding it, but I do intend to - I have a few I want to try, which I will share. This recipe always seems to work and they taste divine. Of course I have adapted it slightly but you can add ANYTHING to brownies and they just get better - for these brownies I stuck to plain as they were for a little one.

You will need:

• 20-24cm square tin
• 200g Good quality dark chocolate - I would recommend using 70% or higher for these
• 250g Unsalted Butter
• 80g Cocoa Powder - I tend to use Bourneville or Green & Blacks
• 65g Plain Flour
• 1 tsp Baking Powder
• 360g Caster Sugar
• 4 Large Eggs

And then you can add anything you fancy - a few things I like to add:

• Nuts - walnuts or hazelnuts usually
• Glace cherries - I have a weekness for these things
• Desiccated or chunks of coconut
• White Chocolate chunks - there is no such thing as too much chocolate
• Marsh mellows - great straight from the oven as they are all gooey and sticky 
• A bag of your fave chocolate sweets - M&M's, Smarties, Minstrels etc..

Okay so, PREP: 

Preheat oven to 180° - Jamie say's to use a 24cm tin but I use a 20cm as I like them thicker, so grease and line a tin size to suit your brownie preference.

1. In a bowl (I used my Kitchenaid bowl) sift the Cocoa Powder, Flour, Baking Powder & Sugar and mix together.

2. In a seperate bowl whisk your eggs

3. Gently melt the butter and chocolate in a bowl over simmering water in a saucepan - make sure the bowl isn't touching the water. Once melted, you can add your extras (cherries/nuts/chocolate) and mix together.

4. Add the chocolate and butter mixture into the flour and sugar mixture - mix together well. Then add your whisked eggs, mix in until the mixture looks smooth and silky.

5. Pour the mixture into your prepared tin and bake - Jamie say's bake for 25 minutes but as I used a smaller tin I bake for around 35-40 minutes. After they have been in for 25 minutes, keep checking them every 5 minutes with a cocktail stick - like with cakes you don't want this stick to come out completely clean - you need to keep them gooey in the middle!

6. Let them cool in the tin otherwise it will crack and break if you remove them hot. When cool - chop them into chunky squares.

Enjoy your rich gooey brownies!