Peasant’s pretzel brownies

I call these peasant’s brownies for they contain not a smidgen of melted chocolate. Over the years I have made many a brownie recipe and my bugbear has always been just how much good-quality chocolate has to be sacrificed to the cause. Brownies should, in my book, be a regular treat, not a seldom-made costly exercise. These brownies manage to substitute cocoa for fine chocolate and with no ill effect. They’re just as squidgy and moreish and very rich. And the crunchy salty pretzels are decidedly good with the sweet fudgey chocolate ooze, but you can leave them out if salt and sweet isn’t your thing.

INGREDIENTS

70g salted butter, plus extra for greasing

200g caster sugar

100ml vegetable or groundnut oil

45g cocoa powder

65g self-raising flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

2 large eggs, at room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

16 salted pretzels, (optional)

METHOD

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease and line a 20 cm square baking tin. Gently heat the butter, sugar and oil in a medium saucepan, until the butter has melted but the sugar is still a little gritty. Add all the ingredients except for the pretzels to the saucepan and stir until combined. Pour the batter into the prepared tin. If using the pretzels, gently place them over the top of the batter in a grid pattern so that they will be easy to cut up.

Bake for 20–25 minutes on the middle shelf of the oven, until the top of the brownie has set but there’s still a little bit of movement when you shake the tin. You do not want an overcooked brownie. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin, then cut into squares. Wrap well if you’re not eating these immediately, to maintain the all-important goo-factor.

#normalmum #brownies #pretzel