Emergency Chocolate Brownies

I was cooking dinner the other night. Cooking is probably a loose term… I was reheating braised beef in tomato from the freezer. As a side note, if you’re not reaping the benefits of your freezing by making extra when you cook and freezing it for later meal. Get on this asap. I personally think it works best with meals cooked in a liquid, or veggie things like falafels / quinoa patties that can be reheated in the oven. Seriously – it’s dinner in 10 minutes and little effort.

Back to the story – so the braised beef is gently bubbling away and Pierre and I both said at the same time ‘I’d really love dessert’. Which means, if you both say it at the same time, it’s meant to be…

It’s probably the whether making us crave this type of comfort food, but seeing dinner was so easy I rolled with it and made this mash mash of a chocolate brownie recipe.

I’ll say now, I left out the baking powder and I winged it on the ingredients. It’s loosely following a Donna Hay recipe, but it’s pretty loose. It also gave me hope on winging it more when it comes to baking.

My version is a little dense. But I really love it that way.

Emergency Chocolate Brownies

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp chia seeds

• 6 tbsp water

• 100g dark chocolate

• 4 tbsp coconut oil

• 1/4 cup coconut milk

• 2 eggs

• 1 cup wholemeal flour

• 1/3 cup cocoa powder

• 1 cup coconut sugar

• 1/4 tsp baking powder

• Optional: 1/3 cup dark chocolate chips

Method

1. Preheat oven to 170 degrees C.

2. In a small bowl combine chia seeds and water. Mix well to make a gel.

3. Over a double boiler, gently melt chocolate and coconut oil, then mix in coconut milk.

4. Remove chocolate mix from heat and allow to cool.

5. Whisk in 2 eggs.

6. Add flour to chocolate mix.

7. Sift cocoa powder into chocolate mix and add sugar and baking powder. Mix to combine.

8. If using, fold through dark chocolate chips.

9. Line a baking tray with baking paper – my tin was 24cm x 30cm.

10. Pour brownie mixture into tray and smooth out.

11. Place in oven and bake for 20 minutes.

12. Allow to cool and slice up – makes around 12 – 16 pieces depending how civilised you are.

NOTES

Baking times – A standard brownie tin is around 20cm, so mine is quite larger. You may need to cook for a little longer. I like my brownie a little under done, so I loosely follow the skewer test but also press the middle of the brownie to see how ‘done’ it is. It should be a little firm, with a little spring in it.

Storage – I store my Emergency Chocolate Brownies in the fridge and they’ll last 5 days or so. Allow them to come back to room temperature slightly before serving with a cup of tea and a good book.