We had a little girls dinner at home the other night.  You know the kind, lots and lots of wine, diet the next day resolutions, followed by a hefty amount of husband/boyfriend/ex-boyfriend bashing.  The more wine we have, the harder it is to get a word in as the conversation gets louder and more animated!  I’ve realised there’s only one way to get a room full of thirsty girlfriends to stop chatting – CHOCOLATE! Lots and lots of it! I have this recipe for chocolate brownies that I got years ago from a pastry chef at Singita that is to die for.  What makes it so brilliant is that it’s dead easy.  No nuts or dates or white chocolate chips, just masses and masses of rich gooey dark chocolate.  It’s really simple because nothing needs to get whisked like crazy and the only real pain is chopping all the chocolate.  I use 65% because it needs a bit of sweetness, and I keep the chocolate quite chunky so that when they’re baked, there are pieces of melted chocolate in the middle of each piece.    A chocolate conversation killer of note!

ingredients
500g melted butter
4 cups castor sugar
2 teaspoon vanilla essence
8 eggs
1 cup cocoa
1½ cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
750g chopped chocolate
250g chopped nuts (optional)

method
• Mix together the castor sugar, eggs, vanilla essence and melted butter until the sugar has dissolved.
• Add the flour, cocoa and salt and mix until a batter forms.
• Add the chopped chocolate and nuts (optional) and mix.
• Pour the mixture into a lined baking tray and bake at 175̊ C for 55 minutes.
• The brownies should still be slightly gooey inside.  Allow to cool and cut into squares.

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