Chocolate brownies

Brownies

These brownies came about due to op shopping.

There’s an op shop near my workplace that I pop into occasionally to look for photography props. Most of the time I come out empty handed but sometimes I get something good.

On my last visit, I found something great – a large French crystal cake stand. For the huge sum of $5. Wheeee.


Brownies

Every time I go op shopping and get something good, it makes me want to go again. So the next day, I rounded up two of my op shop crew – Haz and Thanh (we missed you, Shellie!) for an impromptu op shop crawl.

Brownies

I didn’t buy much, though I did get some great silver plated cutlery for peanuts (these beautiful forks in these pictures), but it was still worth the trip because my very last purchase was a brand new brownie tin with a divider insert.

Of course I had to bake brownies to use my new tin. Of course.

Brownies

There’s a billion different recipes for brownies out there, and here is another. It’s not particularly special or amazing, but it’s a good base recipe. The recipe has very little flour compared to the amount of butter and sugar, so it’s particularly rich and fudgey. I also undercooked them a bit, for even more fudgey factor. I also added a teeny bit of cayenne pepper, to give it a tiny bit of spice without being overwhelming.

Now tell me: do you have any op shop secrets? Where should my gang and I visit on our next crawl? What’s the best buy you’ve made? I’ll give you a brownie in return. 🙂

(Btw, the stand and cloche in these photos didn’t come from an op shop – that was a present from Bro and Bro’s gf. And the plate was a present from April. But all the cutlery, the cup and the book came from op shops.)

Chocolate brownies

Rating: 41

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 40 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour, 10 minutes

Yield: Makes about 20 brownies

Chocolate brownies

Ingredients

  • 75g flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 180g dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
  • 375g butter, cut up
  • 1 tablespoon instant coffee
  • 5 large eggs
  • 400g brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 170°C.
  2. Butter and line a 33 x 23 cm baking pan.
  3. In a small bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, salt and cayenne pepper (if using).
  4. Put the chocolate, butter and instant coffee in a heatproof bowl and slowly melt over a pot of simmering water.
  5. Once melted, remove from the heat and let it cool.
  6. In an electric mixer, beat together the eggs, brown sugar and vanilla until creamy.
  7. Fold in the cooled chocolate mixture, followed by the dry ingredients.
  8. Pour into the prepared baking tin and bake for about 35-40 minutes - don't overbake.
  9. Let it cool completely before cutting into squares.

Notes

Adapted from The Golden Book of Chocolate

https://www.offthespork.com/2014/02/chocolate-brownies/