Wednesday 20 February 2008

Colouring the Sunshine Hours


Annie sits you down to eat
She always makes you welcome in

Cats and babies round her feet

And all are fat and none are thin

None are thin and all are fat
She may bake some brownies today

Saying, you are welcome back

She is another canyon lady

~ Joni Mitchell, Ladies of the Canyon

I can't make a brownie without thinking of Joni Mitchell's wonderful song Ladies of the Canyon. I bought the album (vinyl!!!) when I was seventeen or eighteen years old and I thought that it would be very nice indeed to "colour the sunshine hours" just like the creative Californian women in Joni's song; a song about love, hospitality and comfort. Anyway, I digress. The girls and I have been tinkering with a chocolate brownie recipe for a few weeks now and we think we've made a good one. We took the original recipe from Yankee Magazine's New England Cookbook and reduced the sugar content and increased the chocolate content...we also added healthy bits to salve our chocolate-saturated consciences. Here's the recipe.

4 eggs
1 cup of sugar
1 tablespoon of date syrup
1/2 cup of melted butter
1/2 cup of proper cocoa
1/2 cup of wholemeal spelt flour (you can use normal flour if you want to)
1/2 bar of 70% cocoa solids chocolate (chopped)
A medium sized baking tin, lined with greaseproof paper.

  1. Beat your eggs in a large bowl.
  2. Gradually stir in the sugar and the date syrup.
  3. Now add the melted, but slightly cooled butter.
  4. Sift in the cocoa and then add the flour. Stir well after each addition.
  5. Add the chopped chocolate bar.
  6. Bake in a slow oven for 30-40 minutes or until the brownie is just set.
  7. Cool, remove from tin, peel back the greaseproof paper and then cut into chunks.

...yummy, yummy, yummy I've got love in my tummy and I feel like lovin' you!

6 comments:

Zillah said...

Mmmmmm, sounds good!

I love baking cakes with wholemeal spelt. 'But it's so healthy, I must eat another slice'! It works very well in banana bread - I use 50/50 white and wholemeal spelt.

Zillah

Anonymous said...

Sounds delish chuck! I like the Joni Mitchell song quote, I'm not really very familiar with her stuff.

Hugs.

Anonymous said...

p.s. I just love that Mama Cass song

Cherish the Home said...

Isn't Joni Mitchell the one who sang a song that has a line in it that says...'They paved paradise and put up a parking lot'?

Your recipe sounds delicious! And if it's healthy, well then we should be able to eat LOTS more at once sitting! (o;

Dulce Domum said...

Hi Zillah

Yes, the brownies are tantamount to health food, so it is in your interest to eat as many as possible. I'll try spelt in my banana bread, I'm making some today actually.

Hi Sarah

Oh, if you're interested in getting into Joni Mitchell, try the Ladies of the Canyon album and Blue. I think you'll like her stuff. Oh, yes, I love Mama Cass' voice, it's such a shame she fell afoul of a ham sandwich.

Hi Mrs B

You're right! The song's called Big Yellow Taxi and it's on the same album as the song I quoted from. Yes, these brownies are healthy (wink, wink) just like carrot cake! He, he, he.

Dulce Domum said...

Hi Zillah

Yes, the brownies are tantamount to health food, so it is in your interest to eat as many as possible. I'll try spelt in my banana bread, I'm making some today actually.

Hi Sarah

Oh, if you're interested in getting into Joni Mitchell, try the Ladies of the Canyon album and Blue. I think you'll like her stuff. Oh, yes, I love Mama Cass' voice, it's such a shame she fell afoul of a ham sandwich.

Hi Mrs B

You're right! The song's called Big Yellow Taxi and it's on the same album as the song I quoted from. Yes, these brownies are healthy (wink, wink) just like carrot cake! He, he, he.