Once you have the basic brownie recipe that you like and enjoy the most then you can add all sorts of things to ‘liven’ your brownies up. I have added walnuts to the brownie mixture and saved some to scatter over the top.  This is a great way to use up leftover Christmas nuts too!

Unfortunately Brownies are really too easy to eat, and it is too easy to eat too many of them! Luckily they are really easy to make too….

You will need:

• 135g Dark Chocolate (broken into squares)
• 135g Butter
• 1tsp Vanilla extract
• 2 Eggs
• 225g Caster Sugar
• 135g Plain Flour
• 1/2tsp baking Powder
• 50g Chopped Walnuts
• Plus 20g of Walnuts to scatter for decoration

Method:

• Grease and line a square 20cm tin and preheat the oven to 180 degrees
• Melt the chocolate and the butter together over a bain marie (heat proof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water), take care not to overheat the chocolate and butter.
• Once the butter and chocolate have melted, remove from the heat then add the vanilla extract and stir well, put to one side and allow to cool slightly.
• Meanwhile, whisk the eggs and sugar together until the sugar has dissolved in the eggs and they look think and creamy.
• Gentle fold the chocolate mixture into the eggs and sugar making sure it is well incorporated.
• Stir in the chopped walnuts.
• Sift in the flour and baking powder and fold in ensuring there are no lumps of flour.
• Pour into the prepared tin.
• Scatter the remaining walnuts evenly over the top (I like to try and use the larger chunks of walnuts for the decoration.)
• Bake for 20-30 mins.
• Allow to cool in the tin. The brownie will sink a little in the middle, this is fine.
• Once cooled lift from the tin and remove the baking paper before cutting into squares and serving.