We had the Olympics on last night and, oh boy, doesn't it make you want to join a gym or take up training for something, anything?
'Don't we have a rowing machine somewhere?" I asked, as we watched the rowing, then the sprinting, then some other athletic endeavour.
'I think so,' was the response.
After a few seconds of silence, it was suggested we could have some sort of sweet-treat in lieu of rowing.
That seemed a fair trade off.
It was then suggested that we could have brownies as there was some 80% dark chocolate going spare.
I, of course, jump at the chance to bake, since I claim the beater and the bowls to partake of the mixture, and more importantly, I have oversight over how much of the actual mixture stays on the beater and the bowl and doesn't make it into the baking dish to be baked.
So I decided to make a favourite microwave brownie recipe, which comes from an Alison Holst microwave cookbook, from back in the day when the microwave ruled and you did everything in it. Dame Alison Holst is a super famous New Zealand cook book author, and I have heaps of her books.
It is dead easy and here it is:
'Don't we have a rowing machine somewhere?" I asked, as we watched the rowing, then the sprinting, then some other athletic endeavour.
'I think so,' was the response.
After a few seconds of silence, it was suggested we could have some sort of sweet-treat in lieu of rowing.
That seemed a fair trade off.
It was then suggested that we could have brownies as there was some 80% dark chocolate going spare.
I, of course, jump at the chance to bake, since I claim the beater and the bowls to partake of the mixture, and more importantly, I have oversight over how much of the actual mixture stays on the beater and the bowl and doesn't make it into the baking dish to be baked.
So I decided to make a favourite microwave brownie recipe, which comes from an Alison Holst microwave cookbook, from back in the day when the microwave ruled and you did everything in it. Dame Alison Holst is a super famous New Zealand cook book author, and I have heaps of her books.
It is dead easy and here it is:
You beat:
2 eggs
1 cup of sugar
Vanilla essence, (say a teaspoon or two)
2 eggs
1 cup of sugar
Vanilla essence, (say a teaspoon or two)
You then add 100g of melted butter to the mixture.
Now, here is where I melted the butter old-fashioned style in a bowl over a pot with boiling or simmering water, who knows if it boiled or simmered, I couldn't see, but it was suitably hot, and I then added the chocolate, and stirred it around until it melted with the butter. I also added a teaspoon or so of instant coffee as well to dissolve, cos coffee and chocolate, fantastic.
Fantastic.
I stirred this into the egg mixture til it was combined.
Then added:
1 cup of flour, 1 teaspoon of baking powder, and a bit less than a quarter of a cup of cocoa.
1 cup of flour, 1 teaspoon of baking powder, and a bit less than a quarter of a cup of cocoa.
Dame Al's recipe calls for quarter of a cup of cocoa, but I used a bit less on account of the chocolate already there, and hoped there was enough of a dry mix in there.
Then you:
Microwave for 5 minutes on high, but I stopped it at three mins, had a look, then chucked it back for thirty secs, and deemed that upon cooling, it would be fine.
Microwave for 5 minutes on high, but I stopped it at three mins, had a look, then chucked it back for thirty secs, and deemed that upon cooling, it would be fine.
It was indeed very fine.
It had a nice fudgy texture and perhaps was not perfect, whatever perfect is meant to be when it comes to a brownie, but we eat the lot. Polished off the lot with cups of decaf on account it was late at night.
It was very nice and adding chocolate really did add something to it that did make it a bit more spesh.
As for this rowing machine, well, I still don't know where this rowing machine could possibly be. Most likely the garage but if it is, it has probably rusted away anyway.
I reckon that will be what has happened, for sure, so really, there is no point in even investigating, I say. Best to let sleeping rowing machines lie.
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