Valentine’s Day Brownies
The last time I celebrated Valentine’s Day was the year that my high-school boyfriend broke up with me. He didn’t break up with me on Valentine’s day; it was a bit before. I was suitably devastated. His Valentine’s Day present–two tickets to Ross Nobel–would go to waste and I would spend the day as any lovestruck 16-year-old would–heartbroken.
On Valentine’s Day my best friend gave me a stuffed toy puppy dog holding a love heart. Another friend had bought me a teddy bear. Another friend made me a Valentine’s Day card. They were all just trying to make me feel better. It was my best Valentine’s Day ever.
I’ve been itching to bake ever since I moved back into this rental house. The kitchen is puny and there’s barely room to butter your toast let alone bake something. When my housemate asked me if I felt like baking I was all over it. She went to the shops and stocked up on unsalted butter and chocolate, and I started thinking about brownies.
I prefer my brownies packed with chocolate, so I don’t ever use any nuts. I also mixed icing sugar with red food colouring to give these a Valentine’s Day twist–you can obviously just use normal icing sugar.
Valentine’s Day Brownies:
180g butter
180g dark chocolate, chopped
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
250g caster sugar
110g plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
At least 200g mixed chocolate (white, milk & dark)
- Preheat oven to 180*C.
- Melt butter and dark chocolate in a bain marie.
- Whisk eggs, vanilla bean paste, and caster sugar.
- Sift flour and salt into the butter and chocolate; add egg mixture and the 200g chocolate.
- Stir all ingredients together until well combined.
- Add to a greased and lined brownie pan, and bake for 25 minutes.
- When the brownies are cool, cut them up as you like. To make coloured icing sugar just blitz some icing sugar with red food colouring in your food processor. Dust over the brownies and serve.
For a slightly fancier approach to Valentine’s Day check out The Hungry Australian’s possible Valentine’s Day menus .
