Recipe from Stolen Moments Cooking which I was shown by my workmate Jen.

I had told my mum I’d make a dessertish thing for our midwinter Christmas gathering and I’d been eying up some rather more complicated looking s’mores cupcakes and contemplating making marshmallow whip frosting and trying to work out how much time it would take. This brownies recipe looked much much easier, so I decided to make that instead.

I’ve never really made brownies before, since I know a few people who reliably make awesome (but different, and each the best ever) brownies. Although one of those people is living in Rarotonga now, so I wasn’t too sure what to expect from the recipe. I found it easy to follow and fast as well. It was very gooey and strange to deal with, but I managed to get it all into my slice tray without too much spillage.

Variations for the NZ baker include not bothering to wait for the mixture of chocolate, butter and sugar to cool to room temp for fear of it adhering permanently to the saucepan. Instead I just cooked it on a low heat and let it relax while I dealt with whisking the eggs and stuff. You can’t get graham crackers in NZ so I substituted girl guide biscuits chopped up in the kitchen whizz. I also used Cadbury dairy milk for the topping and pascall’s marshmallows cut in half with scissors.

Before the baking

I was quite excited watching it bake, although it was pretty hard to tell when the brownie was baked through since the usual ’shake the pan gently and see if it moves like fluid’ was thwarted by the sea of melted marshmallow on top. I gave it an extra five minutes to be safe and then stuck a skewer through a non-marshmallowed gap. It was still not cooked, but I figured it could finish off at my mum’s house.

When we came to eat the brownies they weren’t in fact cooked through. The edge parts and the corners were nice and cakey and the middle was nice and gooey. Kind of like chocolate pudding. It was still good but I think next time I’ll try and cook the brownies on their own before I add the topping, because I hate to give people baking which isn’t all baked through. I think it was to do with the size of my pan as well, the recipe indicates that you should bake it in a wider more shallow pan, and mine was small.

The reception of the brownies was very good, though.

Toasted marshmallows. Nom

The marshmallow caramelized along the side of the pan a bit, the Cadbury chocolate was delish on top and I think next time I make it I’ll put more on top. The biscuits were hard to make out though, so next time I think I’ll just crumble them with my rolling pin instead of crushing them in the whizz. I kind of wanted more crunch.

In conclusion, delicious. Will bake again. Probably quite soon.