Cheap-ish Eats | Bloody Good Brownies

This is my favourite base recipe to use. There are a few substitutions that can be made and overall, it’s fairly easy to make and very versatile. Add whatever toppings you want to to replace the chocolate or have the chocolate but still include the rest of the nuts/seeds/mixings you have on hand. I personally love walnut, but I just use anything I have in my cupboard that would work well.

And yes, there is a fair amount of sugar in this recipe.

Ingredients required: 40g flaxmeal, 135ml coffee¹, 115g melted Nuttelex², 300g sugar³, a good squirt of molasses⁴, 20ml vanilla⁵, 50g cocoa, 150g plain flour, 3g salt, 4g baking powder, 180g chocolate bits & pieces⁶, and anything else you want to add in such as walnuts, sunflower seeds, pepitas, coconut flakes, cranberries etc.

Method:

1. Pre-heat oven to 170°C fan-forced.
2. Mix flaxseed and coffee well and leave it for a few minutes to thicken. Add melted Nuttelex, sugar, molasses, and vanilla. Stir well.
3. Sift in cocoa, plain flour, salt, and baking powder.
4. Fold in dry ingredients and once mostly mixed in well, add your chocolate and/or chosen mixings.
5. Stir gently until combined well and add to lined tin.
6. Bake for 30-35 minutes and once finished, take the tin out and let it continue to ‘cook’ in its tin until it’s fully cooled.
7. Once fully cooled and cold to touch, cut to desire sizes and pieces.

Footnotes

1. You can use instant coffee or espresso. Coffee really adds an extra oomph to it without tasting like coffee. ↩︎
2. You can use other margarine, but I prefer Nuttelex. ↩︎
3. I prefer using raw sugar, but you can use any sugar you have on hand. If you use brown sugar, you’ll get a more denser/chewier/fudgier texture. White sugar creates a more cake-like brownie with a crackly top. ↩︎
4. See above for note. Brown sugar is usually just white sugar with molasses added to it. Nice to have molasses but if you don’t have it, it’s fine to do without. ↩︎
5. You can use vanilla extract or essence but you can also skip it if you don’t have it. Adds a subtle but appreciable taste to it. ↩︎
6. Honestly, you can leave it out if you don’t have any chocolate. ↩︎