Moonlighting Chocolate Brownie.

This is a wonderful recipe: a brownie cake moonlighting as brownie ice cream.  I make the cake when there is a reason to celebrate and serve it fresh on the day of making, then after much indulgence the remains get wrapped and put in the freezer.  Because the brownie is seriously gooey inside, when you freeze it you get a sort of chocolate brownie ice cream which then makes a wonderful pudding straight from the freezer.

And the great thing is (while you wouldn't know it from the taste) the basic brownie recipe uses cocoa powder rather than chocolate chunks.  A huge bonus given chocolate doesn't seem to have any staying power in our house.  The basic recipe is from Food and Home magazine in South Africa, but the addition of icing and the way of keeping and eating is my own.

Ingredients

460 g unsalted butter, melted and cooled

700 g sugar (I use a mix of brown and caster)

10 ml vanilla extract

6 large free-range eggs, lightly beaten

120 g cocoa powder

240 g plain flour

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

pinch of salt

500 ml walnuts or pecans (I used walnuts but also threw in the remains of some caramelised almonds that had been hanging about for far too long)

A tub of chocolate fudge icing/frosting

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C and lightly grease a 20 cm deep square baking tin and line the bottom with greaseproof paper.

2. Mix the sugar and melted butter with a handheld whisk, then add the vanilla extract and eggs, continue to mix until well combined.

3. In a separate bowl, sift all the rest of the ingredients except the nuts.  

Fold the dry ingredients into the sugar/butter/egg mixture and blend well ensuring you get into all the corners of the bowl.  Then fold in the nuts.

4. Spoon the mixture into the tin and place on a baking sheet.  Bake until the brownies are set and slightly firm but not dry, importantly it should wobble in the middle, aim for 35-40 minutes tops.  It will take a bit of courage to remove it when it is clearly not traditionally cooked.

5. Cool completely in the tin then remove and wrap in greaseproof paper, then tin foil and place in the freezer for an hour.

6. Remove from the freezer and ice with the chocolate fudge icing.  Then either decorate and serve as a celebration cake, or wrap immediately and place in the freezer until you get a chocolate urge or unexpected guests for dinner.

See my 'get Crafty' page for how to make the flags and banners.