Brownies

Back in the day, when I stopped being a Physio (though one could argue I barely started) and decided I wanted to be a teacher, I started going to uni at night. I was in a class with about 12 other amazingly, special people! We made a special bond and I consider them some of the most amazing people I know. We took prodigious care of each other and would often bring food to carry us through the late afternoon/night classes. Emma, a dear friend bought these eggless brownies one day and they were truly amazing. If you are indeed intolerant of eggs, simple replace each egg with 1/4 of blended silken tofu. It works a treat and I for one can't taste the difference.

Ingredients

• 375 g butter
• 375 g dark chocolate ( use something with at least 60% cocoa solids, don't worry it won't be bitter)
• 6 eggs or 1 and a half cups of silken tofu (ie 1/4 cup tofu = 1 egg)
• 1 tbsp vanilla
• 500 g caster sugar
• 225 g plain flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 300 g chopped walnuts

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius or 350 fahrenheit

Lovely, unctuous melted chocolate....mmm

Melt the butter and chocolate in a saucepan. Use a nice low heat and you can avoid having to use a double boiler. The chocolate will melt and become lovely and glossy.

Make sure you leave this to cool to room temperature to avoid the unfortunate scrambled eggs scenario.

Beat tofu/eggs, sugar and vanilla in a bowl. I use the team beat lightly, you just want to break-up the eggs because brownies are quite dense so air is in fact the enemy.

Add the chopped walnuts to the chocolate mixture and slowly incorporate this into the eggs and sugar. I add a little at a time to make sure it's cool enough. If you're not keen on walnuts, pecans or macadamias also work brilliant, heck...why not do a combo?

Chop these as big or as small as you life. If you're particularly finicky, use a food processor or as my husband does....a mortar and pestle. 

Finally add the flour and salt and mix!

Pour it into your prepared ban and pop in the over for 35-40 mins. Basically you want the center to be slightly sticky, not liquidy.

These brownies are amazing warm and even better if you leave them a couple of days.