Totally Delicious Chocolate Brownies

Yesterday I went to visit my lovely friend Kel who's just given birth to beautiful baby George. I used to work with Kel, and along with sharing a birthday we also share a deep and respectful love of chocolate. Not an "I need to eat a block of Dairy Milk now!" type love, but if it wasn't consumed on a nearly daily basis, there was something up. We used to pop over to the bakery and buy a little morsel called a chocolate slice, similar to a hedgehog I suppose and share it on the premise that it was too big for either of us to eat. I think we both would have managed it but the joy of sharing the chocolate was greater than eating more of it.

Anyway. Little George is just beautiful, quiet, serene and happy: just what a three week old baby should be. May he never get teeth like our little Lily who kept GG and I up half last night, but I suppose that's a joy for Kel and Brad to experience in coming months.

And the chocolate? Nigella's Chocolate Brownies of course. So simple, very quick to make, but you do need to watch they don't over cook them so they stay sticky in the middle. In my opinion, they are much better eaten the next day after a night's resting in the fridge (as I am doing now with a cup of tea). It seems like a lot of eggs, chocolate, butter and sugar, but it does make a vast amount: even with my current appetite we seem to have brownies around the house for days after I've baked them...

Nigella Lawson's Chocolate Brownies

375g soft butter
375g dark chocolate
6 eggs
1tbs vanilla extract
500g castor sugar
225g plain flour
150g chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 180 C and line large tin (33cm x 23cm) with baking paper. Melt together butter and chocolate and allow to cool a little. Beat together eggs, sugar and vanilla.

Mix together chocolate/butter mixture into eggs and sugar, then sift in flour. Dust walnuts lightly in flour and stir in to combine. Pour into tin and bake for 25 minutes, until cooked (squewer in it will just come out clean), top will be light brown and speckled, but do not let overcook, it will continue to cook as it cools. Turn out of tin and allow to cool.