Brownie Biscuits

It turns out, a sleepy Sunday baker can lead to some pretty burnt brownie biscuits. I'd been wanting to try this recipe for a while and a post-ball me thought it might be time to give it a go. Not a good idea. And then of course it was a Sunday so Tesco was closed, and little Sainsburys had nothing to offer in the way of cocoa powder, and only extortionately priced everything else. So meet batch two of these beauties, prepared on a wide awake Monday. 

I love salt, a fact much scorned by housemates. When I was little, my brother used to pour salt onto everything he ate and, since he was my idea of the coolest person in the whole wide world, I promptly followed suit. Ever since I've been a salty over sweet kinda person and so I thought I'd jump on the salted chocolate bandwagon here. I whipped up some caramel to drizzle on top before sprinkling on the salt flakes.

This was all a little sticky, both literally and in terms of timing. I'd go back to the original recipe rather than using mine, which was all a little rogue.

Chopping Chocolate

I woke up this morning with a stye in my eye that was reminiscent of Mr Hook's Panda Gate incident. To avoid scaring the swathes of students in the library, I holed up at home with tea and a perfectly-timed (as ever) present of Green & Black's Maya Gold Chocolate from Mumma Hart, which she posted me along with my fineliners (yay!) and an article snipped from the Telegraph entitled 'How to dither no more'. Apparently we procrastinate for 3.63 hours every day. That bit's probably right for me, or maybe even an underestimate. How? TV, Internet, 'personal grooming', making tea and coffee... Also accurate. My chief procrastination method, however, is procrastibaking, loved by students across the country. There's this thing about cooking where it feels constructive because you achieve something, be it an exquisite soufflé or a so-so microwave mug cake. 

The number one piece of advice for us procrastinators is this: "The next time you procrastinate, ask yourself, 'What made me decide to do this in the first place?' If you don't know the answer, don't do it.' In the case of today's procrastibaking, the motivation was inspiration in the shape of chocolate from Mumma H, and the idea of arriving at tonight's dinner party with something to offer, and to make life a little sweeter for my newly-vegan-for-lent housemate. So going by that logic, I'm pretty sure this is a legit way to spend time and definitely not procrastination. 

The vegan brownie recipe comes from the Grand Old Duke Jamie Oliver. I'm learning quite a lot about vegan eating at the moment, and one gem of wisdom is that almost all plain/dark chocolate is dairy-free. Who knew. Also vegan-friendly are Oreos and Hobnobs, which I would suggest has made Amy's lent a helluva lot more enjoyable. This brownie mix seems really smooth at first and then the chocolate cools and it gets a bit thicker and more mousse-like. Not the most dainty of brownies but bloody good all the same. To be enjoyed with (dairy-free) ice cream.

p.s. for a good read on the sounds of cooking, try this!

p.p.s for more vegan recipes, go see Brogues!