Carob espresso brownie slice

Weirdest.  Brownie.  EVER.

I know, it's all about baking at the moment and you maybe don't care (although if that is the case, I wail at you - how can you not care about noms ??), but I'm trying to get two mojos back - baking and writing, so there's a lot of writing about baking. I'm completely out of the swing of both.  If it gives you hope, I expect that in a couple more recipes it'll be a lot of writing about baking and exercising.  Just to mix it up.  And so I can still fit into my pants.

Ok, ok.  If it makes you feel better, a little bit of the old me is having a wee bit of trouble with my Winter clothing budget.  I've found a Juliette Hogan cardy ... Not only is it beige (although beige called something a bit cooler) but it has leather patches on the elbow! Leather patches!!  On the elbow!!  Nevermind anything else, if I buy it I'll be instantly brainy!  I'm not giving you a link though because it's bloody expensive and the husband will have a whole litter of kittens if he sees how expensive.  At the moment he chooses to be ignorant and  I know for a fact that he's too lazy to actually go looking, so I'm kicking it in the safety zone of what he doesn't know won't hurt him.  Many of my senses have dulled over 4 years of sleep deprivation, but I'm still pretty quick with the ol' make-the-visa-bill-disappear slight of hand.  Woe is me, the beach house doesn't have a fireplace which is ultimately the best way of dealing to such things, but the husband has started making noises about wanting to put one in so YAY!  I think he's more focussed on heating the house somehow, but whatever.

Anyway.  I don't really have a budget as such, more that the husband set himself one and I have a healthy sense of competition.  I suspect I may come in walking in this race (or limping ... or carried on a stretcher with an oxygen mask in place) but we'll see how it goes.  I have good intentions, but then I also want a Winter jacket and something resembling Winter sneakers (THESE) ..... and then there's the cardy.  Le sigh.  I'm sure there's a way, I just have to knock a bit of rust off my skills.  And possibly try to win lotto.  Or at least, win lotto more than I did last week because 26 bucks a cardy does not make.

Aaand, brownie.  More about cardys another day. 

The brownie looks sooo good, but it also looks like chocolate, so ultimately it's really disappointing.  It's the weirdest thing - the texture is gorgeous and it tastes really good ... but it's not chocolate and you really expect chocolate, so you just feel screwed with!  It's not like we don't know this, that it's not chocolate, it's just that the mind expects what it expects regardless (which is chocolate, if you're confused. I wouldn't blame you if you were).  Even while you're eating it, you're still waiting for the chocolate.  It's like it's pulling a prank on you.  It's a very tricky brownie.  The kids love it.  I'm not sure myself and I think the husband is equally hoping the kids will finish it (they love it - or rather, the not-ginger loves spreading it all over the house and giving what's left to the dog.  The little ginger though thinks it's the best thing ever).  Mind you, for all of that, even without the chocolate it's an incredible treat and I doubt you'd actually get a slice made out of chocolate down you.  Very tricky brownie.   

There are walnuts and cranberries too, which you can't really see - really nice touch though, they are.

Oh, and nailed it!  I think.  It doesn't look like the picture in the book exactly  (Dean's version looks a bit more biscuit-like, less cakey) but it seems to be everything a brownie should be so I'm thinking the only difference is that bakers are just different, person to person, in the way they handle ingredients etc  Meh, I have no idea.  He says to leave it to cool and cut it with a hot knife so could be it wasn't cool enough and the knife wasn't hot enough just as easily as anything else. 

Next recipe will a do-over.  I'll keep you posted on whether I blow my entire clothing budget on the cardy.

(P.S.  I even flashed it up!!  A stylist I'm not, but it's better than baking paper, no?)