An abundance of raspberries

At the markets yesterday, I was pleasantly surprised to see fresh raspberries. What was even more exciting though was the sign under them reading: 3 punnets for $5. Now, how can you pass up an offer like that?

There are so many things you can do with raspberries. I contemplated raspberry stuffed profiteroles, white chocolate and raspberry cake, raspberry jam, or something simple like a raspberry smoothy (very likely will also do this one). In the end though, I decided the best match for raspberries was chocolate. So, this weekend we are enjoying some choc-raspberry brownies. Let me hear you say "Mmmmmmmm".

I like to use two different brownie recipes. If I want to show off, I'll use the Hummingbird Bakery recipe. These are deliciously gooey brownies and have a nice crisp top to them. They melt in your mouth and always get the desired response of people moaning with pleasure as they eat them. If I'm baking for my son and husband though, I'll use a recipe from my very first cookbook, one my Mum bought me as a birthday gift when I was about 12, called Kids Cooking: A Very Slightly Messy Manual. This cookbook makes me laugh, as it has some very random recipes in it, including Hidden Hot Dogs, Ruthie and Rosarita's Crunchy Two-style Chicken, Tune Wiggle, Frozen Bananoids and Fido's Fabulous People Crackers (for dogs only). As this weekend was family baking, I went with the Kids Cooking recipe. Hope you enjoy.

Disgustingly Rich (Choc Raspberry) Brownies

125g butter

2 cups caster sugar

3/4 cup cocoa

4 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups plain flour

Pinch salt

1 punnet fresh raspberries

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius. Butter and line a small/medium square baking tray.

Melt butter over low heat, be careful not to burn. In a bowl, mix the sugar and cocoa together with a wooden spoon until combined. Pour melted butter into the sugar mix and  combined. Add the eggs and vanilla and stir.

Add the flour and salt and mix until smooth - be careful not to over mix. Pour the mixture into the prepared baking tray and bake in the oven for about 40 minutes (or if you prefer the skewer test, you want the skewer to come out a little dirty, if it's clean, you've overcooked your brownies).

Serve with some fresh raspberries and a dusting of icing sugar or some thick cream.