Little Pink Kitchen brownies

Oh, these brownies.

I have made so many of them, over the years.

The invention of these brownies would actually be the easiest thing in the WORLD to romanticise but basically 9 odd years ago I was talking to new friends I wanted to impress about Indian breakfast food and how fabulous it was and then we ordered more wine and even more wine and all of a sudden I had unintentionally volunteered to cook them all Indian breakfast.

Which was a hefty enough call but we were finishing off getting our first wee house ready to put on the market so it was going to be like 7 people in a Sydenham semi but sure wouldn’t it be grand? I hotfooted it to the old Asia Supermarket on Eglington Avenue and got myself the wherewithal for some dosa and then hotfooted it elsewhere for the wherewithal for even more mimosas and nipped into the BP on the way home so there was the wherewithal for emergency toast. 

Except the night before this gathering of 7 people I didn’t know absolutely brilliantly well yet I went up to Ballymena to go out for dinner with my sister because she was over from England and we ate and drank and made merry and then we ordered more wine and even more wine and all of a sudden I had unintentionally invited my family round to join us for Indian breakfast as well.

So now there were 10 people in our Sydenham semi for dosa. Only some of whom had a raging hangover.

So the next morning I fermented batter and made chai and put on a sari and got everyone a bindi and we had a properly lovely morning eating and drinking and making merry. Mr P decided to use the kids as child labour and got them to work on touching up an outside wall. The rest of us did some more making merry.

And halfway through approximately the 17th round of mimosas my friend Caroline said ‘this is what you should do. You should organise something like this and get people to buy tickets.’ And fuelled by mimosas, and told about canva by my friend Patricia, I set the date for my first ever breakfast club.

By the time tickets were sold, I decided there needed to be dessert, and I figured everybody always loves a brownie. One of the guests was gluten free, and so necessity was the mother of all invention, and the Little Pink Kitchen brownie was born.

And they have been served ever since. Since those first days of nobody ever having heard of a ‘supperclub’ or ‘pop-up restaurant’, where for the first few events where guests mostly were friends or family, through the years of nearly losing myself in a sea of pop-ups to now, where guests have become friends. These brownies have been served at weddings and christenings and funerals and birthdays and hen parties and training days and everything in between.

And now you can make them any day you want.

I really hope you enjoy.

And to Bronagh and Liam and Lalit and Sophie and Keith and Mum and Dad, I really, really, really hope you had as much fun that day as I did.

To Joris Minne, thank you for coming to that first ever paid event and getting me to set more dates. I think you knew exactly what you were doing, and I cannot thank you enough for giving a slightly madcap idea some gravitas.

To Patricia and Caroline, thank you. For everything. Without you pair, there really would not be a Little Pink Kitchen at all.

~

Get that oven going to one hundred and eighty. Like Bullseye, or something.

Melt some lovely, lovely butter in a pan.

Then grab some really good quality dark chocolate. I use these catering callets because they are delicious but also they are little buttons so I don’t have to chop chocolate. I have also made these brownies using fairly standard dark chocolate and they are really very delicious indeed, but The Good Stuff really is worth it here.

If you buy a bar, do chop it up into little bits.

Throw the chocolate into the melted butter and turn off the heat, leaving it for a minute or two so the chocolate melts.

If you don’t chop the chocolate then you have to keep the heat on and the butter browns and the chocolate seizes and all sorts, so trust the ultimate lazy girl when she says it is worth the effort.

You do you, my friend.

It is also the perfect chance to grease or line your baking tray. I use a 32x22cm rectangular tray from a well known supermarket chain, and I think that it is the perfect size.

After a couple of minutes, give the mixture a good stir and you will see lovely melty chocolate.

I always use a spatula because then one mixing device does the lot and I have one only utensil to wash, but if you don’t make these 57492 a year, there is probably much joy to be gained from licking a few spoons and life is very short and brownie mix is delicious, so you do you, my friend.

Mix in some sugar…

And some ground almonds.

Doing it in this order means the mixture is nice and cool and you don’t add eggs that immediately start to scramble.

I mean, I had time to take a picture of my eggs and they haven’t even started to cook, so I think that is a win.

Give it all another good beating…

And tip into your prepared tin.

Lifting the tina couple of centimetres off the worktop and dropping it down settles the whole mixture nicely, but swirling it with the back of my spatula makes me feel all celebrity chef so that is usually what I roll with.

Bake for 25 minutes.

And serve still a bit warm with some creme fraiche if you really want to gild that lily, for it is a lily well worth worth gilding.

And if you really can’t be bothered, just come to a breakfast club. You can have one of mine.

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