Valentine Chocolate Delight

Valentine’s Day may have passed but why not extend the love and surprise your partner this weekend with this chocolate delight?

These chocolate brownie hearts were not planned. I had decided to surprise my husband with another cake (coming soon!) but then I started thinking how he loves chocolate and that maybe I could do both and lunch! Almost burned the rice trying to multitask frenetically before he arrived but somehow I managed and everything came out nicely.

With my time constraint and multitasking it had to be an easy and fast recipe. Basically, you mix everything, put it in the oven for half an hour and voila! My daughter was so happy we were doing hearts for daddy and kept asking me to look at everything. It is wonderful to see how interested she is already in cooking. Sometimes she even brings her small chair and sits in front of the oven waiting for things to bake and rise. At almost 4 she is also a good helper when I’m photographing.

The slight moistness of the brownie was great and the flavour was intense enough for my taste due to the 70% dark chocolate I used. You are free to choose the intensity to your or your love’s taste.

Valentine Chocolate Delight

(adapted from a recipe by the Portuguese Mafalda Matias)

• 3 eggs
• 100 g/3.5 oz sugar
• 100 g/3.5 oz brown sugar
• 200 g/7 0z butter
• 150 g/5.3 oz dark chocolate
• 125 g/4.4 oz all purpose flour
• 1 tbsp cocoa powder

 

1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF. Line a 23 x 23 x 4 cm/9 x 9 x 1 1/2 in square baking pan with parchment paper. Set aside.
2. Melt the butter and the chocolate in a heat proof bowl over a pan of simmering water. Let it cool a bit.
3. In an electric mixer beat the eggs and the sugar until smooth and creamy. Add the chocolate and butter mix and beat until well combined. Sift the flour into the batter, add the cocoa powder and fold in.
4. Pour the batter into the pan and bake for 30 minutes, the center will be a bit humid but you will know it is ready when a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Remove and let it cool down completely before you cut it. I used 3 different sizes of heart cookie cutters. You can serve it with strawberries and decorate to taste.

And yes, my husband appreciated the gesture when he came home carrying a bouquet of red roses …