Absolutely Best Brownies

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup self-rising flour
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour an 8x8 or 9x9 inch baking pan.
2. In a medium bowl, beat together the butter and sugar. Add eggs, and mix well. Combine the flour, cocoa and salt; stir into the sugar mixture. Mix in the vanilla and stir in walnuts if desired. Spread evenly into the prepared pan.
3. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until edges are firm. Cool before cutting into squares.

Special Chocolate Brownies

Serves 10-12

For Guinness Brownies, you will need:  
1‐cup plain white flour  
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder  
1/4‐teaspoon salt  
6 tablespoons butter, cut into cubes  
8 ounces (225g) dark chocolate (I buy a 250g block of Whittakers and save 25g to chip over the top of mix at the end)
3/4 cup white chocolate chips
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar  
1 and a 1/4 cups Guinness   

How to make Guinness Brownies:

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, and salt until evenly combined. Set aside.  
Melt butter, bittersweet chocolate, and white chocolate in a saucepan over another saucepan filled with water (or a double boiler) on a very low heat, stirring constantly until melted.
Remove from heat.  
In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs and sugar on high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add melted chocolate mixture, beating until combined.  
Beat reserved flour mixture into melted chocolate mixture. Whisk in Guinness. The batter will seem a bit thin. 
Drop leftover chips of semisweet chocolate evenly on top of batter.  
Pour into a lightly greased flat baking pan. Bake at 180 degrees celcius for 25 to 30 minutes on centre shelf in the oven, until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out almost clean. Let brownies cool, uncovered, to room temperature. Dust with icing sugar before serving.   

Note: The Guinness should be at room temperature. This recipe uses a little less than a standard 12‐ounce bottle of Guinness stout beer. Do not include foam in the 1 and a quarter cup measurement. Either spoon off the foam or let it rest until the foam subsides.

This is a perfect St Patricks Day recipe... to be sure, to be sure.

How to make your own Oreo Cookies

For the chocolate wafers:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened Dutch process cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 to 1 1/2 cups sugar [see recipe note]
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) room-temperature, unsalted butter
1 large egg

For the filling:
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) room-temperature, unsalted butter
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Set two racks in the middle of the oven. Preheat to 375°F.
In a food processor, or bowl of an electric mixer, thoroughly mix the flour, cocoa, baking soda and powder, salt, and sugar. While pulsing, or on low speed, add the butter, and then the egg. Continue processing or mixing until dough comes together in a mass.
Take rounded teaspoons of batter and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet approximately two inches apart. With moistened hands, slightly flatten the dough. Bake for 9 minutes, rotating once for even baking. Set baking sheets on a rack to cool.
To make the cream, place butter and shortening in a mixing bowl, and at low speed, gradually beat in the sugar and vanilla. Turn the mixer on high and beat for 2 to 3 minutes until filling is light and fluffy.
To assemble the cookies, in a pastry bag with a 1/2 inch, round tip, pipe teaspoon-size blobs of cream into the center of one cookie. Place another cookie, equal in size to the first, on top of the cream. Lightly press, to work the filling evenly to the outsides of the cookie. Continue this process until all the cookies have been sandwiched with cream.

The Best Chocolate Brownies Ever

Ingredients  (makes 12 brownies)

100g  butter

100g good quality dark chocolate (broken into small pieces)

2 large eggs

100g ground walnuts

225g caster sugar

50g plain flour

1 level teaspoon baking powder

Pinch of salt

Method

1. Grease a 18 x 28 cm baking tin with some butter, then line the base with greaseproof paper, and grease the paper as well.

2. Pre heat the oven to 180 degrees C

3. Melt the butter in a large saucepan over a low heat.

4. Take the pan off the heat and add the chocolate pieces to the butter; stir the chocolate into the melted butter until the chocolate melts completely - if necessary return the pan to a very, very low heat or to be safer heat it over a bain marie as it is easy to overheat chocolate. 

5. Keep the melted chocolate and butter aside, and then beat the eggs lightly in a large separate bowl.

6. Add the sugar, flour, walnuts, baking powder and salt to the beaten eggs, then add the melted butter and chocolate and mix it all together thoroughly.

7. Pour the mixture into the prepared baking tin and bake for 30 minutes in the centre of the pre heated oven.

8. Remove the baking tin from the oven after 30 minutes and let the brownies cool completely before cutting them into 12 pieces.

9. Eat the brownies on their own or with some vanilla ice cream. (They taste divine while they are warm, but be careful if you remove them from the baking tin while they are still warm as they are quite crumbly before they cool down).