The time for Brownie is upon us.

UPON US: Apple brownie with cinnamon, sprinkled with icing sugar – a great easy dessert

Brownies are easy and tasty. This recipe I came across at Brownie Recipes is very simple. I was wanting to use up some of the granny smith apples my Mum had given me so to Google I went. I played around with it a bit a second time, because I didn’t like it much the first time, but unfortunately I didn’t take any pictures of the second lot.

Brownies can be eaten as an afternoon snack or with coffee after dinner. But as the picture shows they can also be a quick easy dessert when you don’t have much time or when you just want to whip something up without having to go out and buy ingredients.

I find that I usually have all the ingredients in my cupboard/fridge at any given time and I only ever eat granny smith apples – so you’ll be sure to find them in the fruit bowl at my house.

Ingredients:

125g margarine.

1 cup of sugar.

1 medium egg, beaten.

½ cup of chopped nuts. (optional)

2 medium apples, peeled, cored and finely chopped.

1 cup of flour.

½ teaspoon of baking powder.

½ teaspoon of baking soda.

½ teaspoon of salt.

½ teaspoon of cinnamon.

Preparation Instructions:

Cream the margarine, sugar and egg beating until smooth.

Stir in the chopped nuts and apples.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon; then fold into the batter using a spoon.

Turn the batter into a greased 20cm by 20cm baking pan.

Bake at 175°C for 40 minutes.

Allow to cool, then cut into squares.

Tips:

The second time around I omitted the cinnamon and instead added 3/4 cup of cocoa. I liked the cocoa brownies better than the cinnamon – but that is probably because I’m a sucker for anything chocolate.

Because the apples are very moist once they are cut up it would be worthwhile letting them sit on paper towels for a bit or to try and squeeze some of the water out of them before you add them to the mixture. This is because the brownie comes out quite moist and turns very sticky after a day or so.

Instead of greasing the pan, lining the pan with baking paper means the brownie can just be lifted out of the tin with absolutely no sticking and easy clean up!

One of the most important things to do when baking is to have fun – if baking is not fun and turns into a chore, you’re doing it wrong. So when making these brownies I decided to have a little fun with peeling the apples – it’s much easier to show you: