Brownies. Enough Said. :: by mama

I am not really a fan of chocolate, in and of itself. I mean, okay, hand me a piece of chocolate and twist my arm, and fine, I'll eat it. Of course I'll eat it. Chocolate desserts, however, are another matter altogether. Black forest cake? Chocolate cheesecake? Chocolate mousse? Maybe even a hot fudge sundae? Yes, please, I will have one of each. Thank you for offering.

My love of chocolate desserts poses a bit of a problem here in Bangladesh, since even the simplest recipes tend to require a decent, good quality chunk of chocolate, in a bar or a block or a chip. Let it be known that those things do not really exist here. Traditional Bangladeshi sweets are mostly milk- or rice-based. Chocolate is simply not on the radar.

There is, however, cocoa available in the shops. (Apparently cocoa can sit on a shelf for three years and be fine, unlike chocolate, so I guess it is easier to import.) It's nothing fancy, just Hershey's and Cadbury's, but it works. So we have made the Moosewood Restaurant's vegan chocolate cake recipe oh, about a zillion times by now. Honestly, the cake is fantastic, but I am getting a bit tired of it. Luckily, I recently discovered a brownie recipe that actually uses cocoa. Our lives will never be the same.

I made this recipe late at night and then hid the tray as best I could in the refrigerator. The next afternoon, I started slicing the brownies, turned my back for a moment, and returned to find something not quite right.

A few minutes later, the tray looked like this.

Have I mentioned that these brownies are really good? I think we will be making this recipe a whole lot more from now on.