Winding Alien Days (Brownie Time)

Well, isn't it sometimes interesting how nothing goes the way you'd imagined it.
I have something of a loose, ever-changing life schedule, which I admit I rather enjoy. Since I didn't have anything planned for today, I thought I'd stay in and focus on finishing as many PA lectures as possible before my subscription expires next month.
But that didn't happen.
My uncle called to let me know he'd be dropping by to bring us some home-grown tomatoes from their garden (bloody delicious), and of course, I couldn't say no. And since I felt spoiled for the offer, I thought I'd whip up a quick treat to send back to them.

Enter the brownie.

I admit I don't really make brownies - traditionally, my mum does. But today, there was no time, so I spent the day whirring around, picking up the missing ingredients, and of course cooking.

Listening to music. Running out again when I realized I didn't have enough cream cheese. You know, life. I love it when life gets in the way of plans like this, don't you? I enjoy being here, getting swept off my feet by the sheer existence of things.

Shall I tell you the how?

Super easy, of course. Basically, what you'll need for the basic brownie is:

• 4 eggs
• 300 g brown sugar
• Bit of salt
• 200 g butter (80% at least)
• 200 g dark chocolate
• 200 g white flour
• 150 g diced hazelnuts

So, what you wanna do is melt the butter with the chocolate over bain-marie. I only realized after I'd finished baking that the original recipe called for 250g butter, so I guess it explains why mine came out so thick, but such is life. What can you do.

In a bowl, beat the eggs with the sugar, dash of salt, then incorporate gradually the melted chocolate and butter. It's nice, I promise. After that, I added the diced hazelnuts (walnuts work great, too, but I feel the hazelnuts give it a more cheeky flavor).
Finally, add the flour gradually, while you keep mixing. I personally also added a satchel of baking powder, even though the original recipe doesn't call for it.

For me, it came out really thick, so I spread it out as best I could in a 30x36 cm baking tin (you want the tin to have taller walls since the batter rises). Technically, a smaller (25x30) pan should be better, but this one worked too.

I left it to bake in the preheated oven (170C) for about 20-25 mins, until the toothpick came out clean. It really depends on the oven, as some might require up to 40 min of baking. After, I took the cake out and let it cool.

And you could easily be done. The brownie is glorious just like this - the hazelnut really adds a kick, so you can enjoy as is.

If you like, you can also top it off with a cream:

• 450 g cream cheese
• 100 g powdered sugar
• 60g softened butter
• satchel of vanilla sugar

Simply mix and spread evenly over the suitably cooled down brownie. The cream I made didn't come out too sweet, which in turn helped balance the sweetness of the brownie itself. So I would recommend this one :)
I also sprayed it with dark chocolate sauce for decoration.

It came out divine, my unplanned, unstructured day. And I got loads of home-grown goodies as a reward.

I love days like these.

Oh, make sure you have good music to accompany you while you cook - makes all the difference, I promise!

Bon appetit!