I was never really The World’s Greatest Chocolate Lover.  I liked it but my snack of choice was usually something savoury, if out at a restaurant I would never pick a chocolate dessert over something fruity and I would never find myself making chocolate cake unless it was by request (always from my boy).  But over the last few years this has slowly been changing and now I find it hard to turn down a bar of Green & Blacks and I absolutely cannot resist temptation in the form of a warm chocolate brownie especially if bathed in hot chocolate sauce and served with a scoop of cold creamy vanilla ice cream on the side.

Luckily for me this is also my son’s absolute favourite dessert in the whole wide world so when it is his turn to pick what we make for dinner I can rest assured that I am in for a treat too.  My favourite recipe for brownies is this one from River Cottage Family Cookbook and I make just one teeny adjustment in that instead of using all dark chocolate, which is a little bit too bitter for my son’s taste, I swap half for good quality milk chocolate.  They are so simple and easy to make, perfectly fudgey and like any moist cake they last really well wrapped in foil for a few days.

As for the chocolate sauce, to me this is pretty much the perfect accompaniment and is handy to have in the fridge to warm through and pour over ice cream even when all of the brownies are gone.  It will solidify when chilled and should last a while – I never really get to test how long as it is usually used up pretty quickly but I would think a couple of weeks at least. [Read more…]