When life hands you lemons

Just hand them back and make brownies instead

Fudgy brownies to the rescue

I’m having one of those weeks. Actually, scratch that. I’m having one of those years. It’s been one long series of difficult events, combined lately with a pretty big dose of ‘Seriously, what am I actually at in life?!’. So when I received a generic ‘Thanks, but no thanks’ email yesterday in response to a prospective job offer I was feeling hopeful about, and had invested quite a bit of time in throughout the recruitment process, I thought - yup, that sounds about right. More lemons.

I told myself that it just wasn’t meant to be. That what’s for you won’t pass you, so this obviously wasn’t for me. But I was feeling pretty gutted all the same.

Honestly, I love lemonade but the amount of lemons life has handed me this year would put you off from drinking the stuff ever again, never mind making any. So I decided to hand those lemons right back, thank you very much, and grab me some chocolate instead. Literally that is. And what I grabbed was a brownie.

I had made some the day before to give away as a thank you. It was as I was devouring one of the few I had kept back for us that I realised that these are my go-to recipe whenever I want to make something sweet for someone, or indeed ourselves. They’re the perfect Thank You, Get Better, Happy Birthday and even Just Because. They are in fact All-Occasion-Brownies. And as I was eating this little pick-me-up, inspiration hit for my weekly (ehr,…fortnightly) newsletter. The two posts sitting in my drafts weren’t really hitting the sweet spot yet, but surely these brownies would (pun intended).

So seeing as I really actually started this Stack to chat about food I decided this recipe would be the perfect first one to share. An allrounder to suit any mood or season in life. And it doesn’t hurt that they’re crazy easy to whip up, too.

I got the original recipe for these about 8 years ago from a co-worker, but have adapted them so much since that I can wholeheartedly say they’re my own creation. They’re fudgy, with a crackly top. Moreish, but without being too rich to have to stop eating after just one. And the biggest pro for me - they don’t contain any chocolate, just cocoa powder. Because chocolate doesn’t survive for long in my house, but I have yet to catch anyone with a spoon in the cocoa powder jar! It’s the perfect pantry staple.

You’ll have these ready to eat in an hour, including baking and cooling time. So whether you’re having a bit of a meh day yourself, need something to bring to a bake sale or just want to eat some brownies, go root around your kitchen and see if you have all the ingredients. I’d put money on them improving your day no matter what!

*A disclaimer of sorts. I’ve been wanting to write about food to share my love for it with others, but also to encourage more people to give baking in particular a go. I’ve had so many people tell me over the years that they can’t bake, and I really don’t believe that’s true. So if you’re a novice baker reading this, please give these a go. And do reach out with any questions, I’d love to help.*

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The Recipe

200g salted butter (or unsalted + a good pinch of salt)

280g granulated or caster sugar

80g brown sugar (light or dark)

4 eggs

80g plain natural yogurt, OR sour cream, OR cream cheese

65g unsweetened cocoa powder

85g plain flour (wholemeal or spelt work well too, and are what I use mostly)

1/2tsp bicarbonate of soda

80g chocolate chips

Optional: chopped nuts such as cashews, almonds or walnuts

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The Method

Preheat your oven to 160°C fan/180°C/gas mark 4 and line a 9inch square cake tin ¹ with parchment. Grease any parts of the tin that are uncovered.

*Little tip here - after cutting your parchment crunch it up completely, then open it back up and line your tin. This makes it mold into the tin easier.*

Melt the butter in a saucepan over a low heat.

Remove from the hob and add the sugars. Mix everything together with a whisk, no need for an electric mixer. The butter and sugar never fully mix together for me. That’s fine, just whisk as well as you can for a minute or two.

Once cooled down slightly, add the eggs one at a time, then the yogurt or one of the alternatives given.

Carefully fold in your dry ingredients. (I say carefully not because the brownies will be dense, seeing as that’s kind of what we’re aiming for here anyway, but because you’ll find yourself inside a gigantic flour-cocoa cloud if you don’t!)

Pour the batter, which is quite runny, into the prepared cake tin and tap it on the counter once or twice to get rid of any big air bubbles.

Bake in the preheated oven for 35-40 minutes. The centre should be completely set when you give the tin a little shake. Alternatively you can use the skewer test. Insert a skewer (a fork will work too) into the centre of the brownies; if nothing sticks to the skewer, they are done.)

In an ideal world you should leave these to cool in the tin completely, though I recommend going around the edges of the tin with a spatula as soon as they’re out of the oven so they don’t stick. This is only in case your parchment didn’t cover all the sides (which it never does for me, because I’m too lazy to measure the paper properly.)

If you can’t wait that long though just give them 5-10 minutes, then lift the whole slab of brownies out of the tin with the parchment and cut into as many pieces as you like. I also recommend dusting them with a generous amount of icing sugar at this stage.

These brownies are beautiful just as they are, but if you happen to have some vanilla ice cream in the freezer I strongly advise you pair the two. It’s amazing!

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I really hope you try these brownies, whether or not you’re avoiding lemons for now. Let me know what you think in the comments, or send me a message.

Thanks so much for reading, and I hope you’ll have a wonderful, chocolatey weekend.

Jen x

1. If you don’t have the right size & shape tin you can still make this recipe. There are plenty of calculators online to either adjust the ingredients or suggest alternative tin sizes to suit what you have on hand.

Alternatively you can use my standard approach and eyeball it with whatever tins you have, but you’re baking time will likely have to be adjusted accordingly, so keep an eye on those brownies.