Baking with Bird

The Friends of Chigwell (FOC) collaborated with Old Chigwellian and Great British Bake-Off star, Henry Bird, to bring the School community a special baking tutorial to try at home over the Easter break. The FOC assure us that the recipe for 'The Easiest, and Best, Brownies' has been thoroughly taste-tested! The recipe is in the YouTube video description.

Bake along with Henry online (below).

Ingredients

• 150g unsalted butter
• 250g light brown sugar
• 75g golden syrup
• 250g dark chocolate, chopped
• 1 tsp salt
• 4 large eggs
• 75g plain flour

Extras

• 1 tsp mixed spice/cinnamon/ginger
• Handful raspberries/blackberries/blueberries/Mini Eggs/chocolate chips

Equipment

• 1 medium saucepan
• 1 spatula/wooden spoon
• Weighing scales
• 20cm square cake tin
• Greaseproof paper

Method

1.  Preheat the oven to 180C/350F. Grease and line a 20cm square cake tin with greaseproof paper (this will make it easier to remove your brownies from the tin).
2. Place the butter, sugar, and golden syrup in a medium saucepan. Placing the saucepan on your weighing scales and weighing the ingredients directly into it will save washing up and make everything a lot less messy, especially with golden syrup!
3. Place the saucepan over a gentle heat and stir everything together until completely melted and blended, but not boiling.
4. Tip the chocolate into the hot mixture along with the salt. Give a gentle stir and leave to melt for 1 minute.
5. Give the mixture a good stir until everything is melted in, then add the eggs to the saucepan one at a time, beating after each addition. Adding them slowly will help everything blend together much more easily.
6. Stir in the flour, plus a teaspoon of extra spice, if you like. Pour into the cake tin.
7. If you like, dot over a few raspberries or blackberries, or any of the extras listed above, and press them gently into the mixture.
8. Bake for 30 minutes until the edges have puffed up, and the middle is just set. Leave to cool in the tin before removing and slicing into small brownies!