Chocolate Ginger Brownies

I am a well-mannered young man. I always say please and thank you. (Unless I forget.) But I do think that sometimes, just saying thank you isn't enough. You have to mean it. Show it.

To my mind, brownies mean thank you. They say I care. Making brownies doesn't take very long, but then neither does saying thank you. Some people do neither (rude!). But I do both. Maybe they should just put me in charge of the world.

Anything with all these spices in can only be delicious.

Remember I said we'd been getting free eggs from Mr. Other P's work colleague who keeps hens? Well, there's only so long you can take someone's eggs and bake macarons and what-not without sending a little sweetness back their way as a token of thanks.

I obviously advocate expressing appreciation every time someone helps you out (in keeping with my previously discussed status as a Good Manners Guardian, and future world leader), but since I have a copy of Martha Stewart's Cookies which I really should be doing more to work my way through, I leapt at the chance to make something from it.

Perfect brownies. I almost never get them as good as this batch.

I always think that chocolate is a really boring flavour for cakes and cookies, but you can't really look at the picture of the chocolate-ginger brownies in this book without wanting to bake them immediately. I think I'm doing pretty well having owned the book for a year or so and having waited until now. They are incredibly moist, sweetly yet mysteriously spiced and the unbaked batter is darkly, seductively inviting: you almost do not want to bake it.

That one batch yields sixteen brownies is further cause for joy and elation. It means I get to give eight to Egg Lady (or Julie, as she is known in the office), stuff four in a pretty box as a 'Happy Belated Birthday and thanks for having me over' gift for a work friend, and snaffle two each for me and Him Indoors. There's really only one word for this, and it's 'fabulous'.

You'll note metric measurements as well as cups; I, too, am fabulous.


Chocolate-Ginger Brownies
adapted from Martha Stewart's Cookies

You will need:

1/2 cup (113g) unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing
3 oz (75g) dark chocolate, broken into squares
1 cup (200g) caster sugar
2/3 cup (95 g) plain flour
1/4 cup (30g) cocoa
2 eggs
1 tsp fresh root ginger, grated
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp ground cloves

1. Pre-heat the oven to 170°C and grease and line a 20cm square baking tin (though you could probably use this batter to make brownie cupcakes too. Just an idea, if you don't have the right sized tin...).
2. Melt the butter and chocolate together in a medium sized saucepan over a low heat. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.
3. Add all the other ingredients and stir until smooth. (How easy was that? Going to start saying 'thank you' more often, aren't you.)
4. Pour the batter into the lined pan and bake until set. I gave mine 30 minutes, and they were per-diddley-erfect.
5. Cool in the pan, and then cut into 16 squares. Or however many you like.