Birthday celebrations

Last weekend it was my Dad's birthday (yes it has really taken me that long to write this post). My Dad is pretty easy going and doesn't normally ask for much attention on his birthday. In fact he would be quite okay if no one even noticed the day. Of course no one in our family would actually let that happen, so we just try to keep it low-key. So with that in mind my gift to him this year was that I was going to make his birthday cake. However I decided not to go with a traditional cake with frosting this year. He has a passion for brownies, so I thought they would be perfect in place of the traditional!


I remember as a child whenever a pan of brownies was made they would mysteriously disappear almost instantly after being removed from the oven. It always made me mad, because I would barely get any of them. I wanted my share of the dense, gooey chocolate! Of course now that I no longer live at home I rarely make them, because I would eat the whole pan myself. That is really something I am tying to avoid. It would completely destroy all those hours at the gym I have put in. Especially this recipe!

The recipe I used was a Nigella Lawson on and made a huge batch of the most fudge-like brownies I have ever had! There was a moment thought when I was ready the through the entire thing across the room. It was entirely due to the length of cooking time. She suggest 25 minutes, well at that point my brownies where no where close to being done! I think I ended up more than doubling the suggested time...in the end I lost track of how long they actually cooked for. Other than that I highly recommend these!

Brownies: (courtesy of Nigella Lawson-with slight modifications)

• 375g soft unsalted butter

• 375g best-quality dark chocolate

• 6 large eggs
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 500g sugar
• 225 g flour
• 1 ts salt
• 150g chopped pecans
• 150g white chocolate chips

Pre-heat oven to 350F. Line a 9x12 pan with parchment paper or tin foil.

Melt the butter and chocolate together. Once melted let cool slightly.


Combine eggs, sugar and vanilla and beat.

Measure flour and salt in to separate bowl.

Mix cooled chocolate mixture with eggs and sugar.

Add the nuts and chip, and then flour.
Beat until smoothly and scrape into lined pan.

Bake in oven until top is paler, but middle is still dense and gooey. I think mine baked around 1 hour, but like I mentioned the suggest time is 25 minutes (which seemed way off!). Just keep an eye one them and test with a tooth pick in center, do remember that as they cool they do continue to cook.


Enjoy!