I bake a lot, not just because I love to bake but also there’s constant demand and pressure from my kiddo to bake something for him (He just doesn’t like to see the empty container in the shelf). Just like me, my son loves to gaze in front of the oven and see the transformation of the dough in to delicious goodies. He exclaims every now with a shrill in his voice about how much the goodie has risen or how it changed color and when done he would be very impatient to try without giving enough time for it to cool down. I love to see him get excited and many times he would be in the kitchen asking too many questions trying to quench his curiosity. Even though I would prefer to work alone I secretly enjoy his presence (only some time) as his curiosity turns in to joke and lightens the air with his innocence. One such day, I was waiting for the dough to raise and as usual I was kneeling down to check on it, and my son came and commented, “Mommy ….if you stare so much, the dough would just raise double…be careful it might overflow from the vessel.” I was so humored that I ended up chasing him all around the entire house to make him giggle and laugh.

Even though both my kiddos love any baked goodie, chocolate brownie has a special place in our house. I’ve been searching for a good eggless brownie recipe for a long time and when I saw it in Anushruti’s blog (Her recipes are fool proof and I’ve always had success in the recipes I’ve tried from her blog), I had no doubt that I had to try it. Luckily, I had all the ingredients needed for the brownie and the result was awesome. The brownie had a perfect crust with fluffy chocolatey inside and after every bite we couldn’t stop ourselves from saying wow!!! I followed her recipe as I wanted to get it right the first time but I substituted walnuts to almonds and added some fresh cherries for a little oompah!!!

Ingredients:

All purpose flour — 2 cups

Baking Powder — 2 tsp

Baking Soda — 1 tsp

Dark Chocolate — 1 1/4 cup (I used semi-sweet chocolate and some chocolate chips)

Water — 3/4 cup

Butter — 3/4 cup (at room temperature)

Castor Sugar — 5 Tbsp

Condensed Milk — 1 tin (398gm)

Vanilla Extract — 1 tsp

Roasted Almonds — 1/4 cup (chopped)

Method:

1. Grease a 10″ square pan with parchment paper. (Note: I didn’t have a 10″ square pan and the closest I had was a 9×11 rectangle pan …and the brownies were perfectly baked in this rectangle pan). In a bowl mix all the dry ingredients ….all purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda. Sieve it to remove any lumps.

2. In a small sauce pan, melt chocolate pieces and water until the sauce gets a smooth texture. (Note: If the sauce is very watery then the baking time will increase considerably and the brownie will be very dense. So make sure the sauce is not too thick or too thin). Remove from heat and let it cool.

3. Preheat oven to 350F. In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar well until smooth and creamy (hand mixer or stand mixer does this job really well). Beat for about 2 to 3 minutes.

4. Add condensed milk and beat for an additional 3 to 4 minutes. Add the chocolate sauce from step 3 and mix well. Little by little add the flour mixture from step 2 and mix well until all the flour is combined well.

5. Pour the batter in to the prepared pan. Tap the pan to let the batter spread even. Top with chopped nuts and cherries, if using. Tap again just so that the nuts are uniform. Bake for about 40 minutes. (Mine took about an hour, so keep checking the brownie from around 40 minutes, the baking time greatly varies with batter consistency and the oven type). Let it cool and make square pieces and Enjoy!!!