Birthday brownies

To the July birthday stars: Alice, Christine, Eric, Jenny, Judy, Sze Wing and Pik To

Happy birthday! With this post you can claim a dozen of brownies from me if you drop by London...hehe...

Adapted from the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook

Ingredients:

1. 200g dark chocolate (I used Valrhona 68% dark chocolate)
2. 175g unsalted butter
3. 300g caster sugar
4. 1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
5. 120g plain flour
6. 3 large eggs

Method:

• Preheat oven to 170c and place a piece of parchment paper on the 33 x 23 x 5 cm baking tray. Grease the sides of the tray.
• Roughly chop the chocolate and the butter and put in a bowl over a pan of simmering water (be careful: don't let the base of the bowl touch the water) until fully melted. Remove the bowl and let cool.
• Add sugar to the chocolate mixture and stir well.
• Sieve in flour and fold until fully incorporated.
• Finally fold in all the eggs and the vanilla mixture.
• Pour the brownie mixture on the prepared baking tray and bake for 30 minutes. By then, the top should set but the centre is still soft.
• Take the whole tray out to cool. Cut into 12 slices when the brownie are still warm. When the brownies are completely cooled, dust with icing sugar to decorate.