Winter days are made for family time

We all have a good old moan about the great British weather and how cold it is, and not so long back how hot it was, we simply cannot be happy with what we have. One thing i love about the wet, cold and wintry days though is it gives us the perfect excuse to lock the door, put on our PJs and have some quality family time. That may be snuggled up watching family movies or board games are a favourite in our house too, although that can lead to some tense moments of rivalry!( and not always from the kids). Another favourite of ours is baking, both kids love it especially when they can get involved and get messy! So i was more than happy to work on a campaign with Worktop Express to share one of our favourite recipes

One of our favourite things to make is chocolate brownies, and for an added fruity treat i throw in  a pack of raspberries

The recipe i use is:

185g unsalted butter
185g best dark chocolate
85g plain flour
40g cocoa powder
50g milk chocolate
3 large eggs
275g golden caster sugar

1 pack raspberries

The kid love to help break up the dark chocolate ready to melt while i cut the butter into small chunks ready for melting in a bowl over a simmering pot of boiling water, obviously this part i tend to do myself although the eldest is getting more able to be help with close supervision. The mixture then gets left to cool to room temperature, whilst doing this we sieve the cocoa powder and flour into a bowl (potential for mess but that's what baking is all about) after this the eggs and sugar get whisked (preferably with an electric whisk) until light and fluffy and doubled in volume, i tend to do this as it can be time consuming, the kids make as start on breaking up some milk chocolate to add after. Once the egg mixture is ready i fold in the melted chocolate from earlier and then sieve in the flour mix and gently fold in, and lastly the chocolate (what's left) and the raspberries.

The mixture is poured into a pre-greased and lined tin (20cm square), spread evenly and baked on the middle shelf of a pre heated oven (180/ gas 4 or 160 for fan oven) for 25 minutes (if still looks a little wobbly leave for another 5 minutes)

Once fully cooled remove from tin and baking paper and cut into whatever shapes you want all whilst the kids enjoy licking the bowl!

Of course there is no sign of help when it comes to the washing up, but plenty of volunteers for testing once cooled and cut. Days like these are precious and really those wet, wintry days are not so bad after all.