"Who Told Me to Do This" or "How I Found the Perfect Brownie Recipe"

Making a blog is more difficult than I thought... The thing is that creating one is so easy: you only have to choose a name, an address and that's it. But once you've done it, a world of opportunities opens in front of you that can bring you a huge headache.

I thought that a blog can be created by anybody... (I'm so naive).

I used to open a computer program and I'd never have any problems using it. But with "new-fangled technology", things are getting more difficult. Maybe I'm getting older. Probably... Each day I'm more like my Mum: I awake in the middle of the night and I can't go back to sleep again, each day I'm sleepy and wake up earlier...

Let's focus in what I was saying... Creating a blog is more difficult than I thought, there are so many design options and gadgets and all sorts of things that I don't even know about yet that I want to throw in the towel before start...

But if this new project keeps going, I will be the biggest blog expert in history (okay, maybe not the BIGGEST expert, but I will be pretty good) and I will do marvellous things in the blog... But, as I said... only if the blog keeps going...

So I asked myself: "Who told me to do this?" The answer is myself and my desire to share what I cook. Everybody tells me that I should open a bakery, but for that I need to invest a quantity of money that I don't have... so, if I don't get rich baking, at least I can put my creations in your hands...

Si ya lo decía yo: "quién me mandará meterme en estos fregaos". Pues yo misma, esa es la respuesta, y las ganas que tengo de compartir lo que hago. Todo el mundo me dice que abra una pastelería, pero claro, eso implica una inversión de dinero que no tengo... así que, si no me hago rica con la pastelería, al menos pongo en vuestras manos mis creaciones...

Now for the first recipe...  (Wheeeeeee!! It's coming!!!)  As I said, it's a brownie... In fact I never thought of a brownie as a first recipe, but about a month or so ago, I found a recipe on the Internet that was so good that I decided to change direction and this was the result...

Y ahora la primera receta... qué bien, qué bien... ya llega... Pues como ya os he dicho es un brownie... La verdad es que nunca había pensado empezar con un brownie, pero hace cosa de un mes encontré una receta en Internet que salió muy rico y decidí cambiarla un poquito y salió esta maravilla...

I decided to have it with milk because if it was with ice cream, melted chocolate or the like the calories can start adding up... and I'd like to keep an eye on those calories, even moreso with this new blogging adventure (because I'll have to taste every single creation, won't I?)...

Decidimos tomarlo con leche porque si le añadíamos helado, chocolate derretido y demás las calorías se iban sumando y hay que cuidar el tema de las calorías, más ahora con esta nueva aventura del blog...

So here is the recipe... (drum roll)

Pues aquí va la receta... (redoble de tambor)

Ingredients:

All ingredients at room temperature!!

• 100g flour
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 100g butter
• 150g caster sugar
• 50g light brown sugar or muscovado sugar
• 100g dark chocolate
• 1 tbsp golden syrup
• 2 eggs (medium)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract (in future posts, I'll tell you how you can make it yourself)
• 100g walnuts (big chunks)

And now... to work:

1. Put a saucepan with butter, chocolate, sugar and golden syrup on a low heat. When everything is melted, let it cool down a bit. (We don't want that the heat cooks the eggs now, do we?).
2. Preheat the oven to 180ºC/160ºC fan/gas mark 4 and grease a 20cm cake pan.
3. Now we can sift the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder in a clean bowl.
4. Beat the eggs in another bowl and add the vanilla extract.
5. Slowly add the flour into the eggs mixture. It will be extremely stiff because you don't have enough liquid... Don't panic, go to the next step.
6. Add the melted mixture and you will see how easy this now makes the beating.
7. Add the walnuts.
8. Pour the mixture into the cake pan and bake for 20-30 minutes. (having tried this recipe baking for 20 minutes and 30 minutes, I prefer baking for 20 minutes to keep the brownies moist. But really it depends on your oven...)

 DO NOT OPEN the oven, you should be patient... oookaaaay, I'm very impatient and I know it is very difficult. But at least, use the GOLDEN RULE: do not open the oven until half of the baking time has passed.

NOTE: I like to have everything already measured in each container. But for this recipe I prefer to weigh after melting the butter, chocolate and golden syrup so you can kill time while waiting for it to cool down.

And here is the result...

If you have any question, don't hesitate and ask me, that's why I'm here. I'm not an expert, but I'll try to give you the best answer.

Please, be patient with this blog. Not with my recipes or what I write, but with links, design, and so. I promise it'll get better.

Many thanks for your vote of confidence!!