My friends threw a small house party last weekend so I baked these party-worthy brownies stuffed with Celebration chocolates to take with me. I cut them into party-friendly, bite-size squares with the theory that it's acceptable to eat more than one if they're smaller! I think everybody had fun guessing which chocolate bar flavours they had in each brownie portion.
Another person at the party had baked millionaire's shortbread and chocolate orange cupcakes so there was a lot of chocolate going around. I think it's safe to say that sugar hangovers were as likely as alcohol related ones.
A few of the celebration chunks looked rather impressive fresh from the oven, the Milky Bar pieces in particular as they billowed out like puffy marshmallows! It was almost a shame to watch them deflate as the tray cooled although the finished appearance was still very attractive. I love the shiny, flaky, erupting surface.
For these brownies I used a (slightly adapted) Nigella Lawson recipe, more or less the same as the last brownies I made. My only changes were adding chopped up pieces of Celebration chocolates and 40% cocoa solids milk chocolate for the batter instead of a darker chocolate.
In hindsight I probably would have preferred a slightly darker chocolate, or a mix of milk and dark, just to give a richer flavour. I may have slightly overbaked this batch too as they weren't quite as squidy as previous batches. They were by no means dry though and I still had difficulty peeling them off the parchment paper!
In hindsight I probably would have preferred a slightly darker chocolate, or a mix of milk and dark, just to give a richer flavour. I may have slightly overbaked this batch too as they weren't quite as squidy as previous batches. They were by no means dry though and I still had difficulty peeling them off the parchment paper!
What's your favourite brownie recipe? Can Nigella's recipe be defeated?
