Back for good!

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Hello readers (or maybe just mummy S and mummy H)! I can't believe it has been almost a year since I last entered the world of Mrs H's favourite things. I am sorry for my tardiness but I have recently had a baby. Good excuse, huh?

Little Miss H (who is gorgeous and a complete angel) is now 3 months old and so Mr H and I no longer feel quite as shell shocked by parenthood. This means that every now and then, when Mr H is entertaining our daughter, I am able to do a few of the things that put a smile on my face and make me Mrs H rather than just "mummy"! So "hello" reading, sewing and taking long baths - I've missed you. There have been a few times over the past month when I have donned my apron, got out my hand-written recipe book and rediscovered my love of baking.

The other week my sister-in-law the very stunning Miss H came to visit and have some cuddles with her new niece. In honour of this event, I decided to bake these heavenly coconut and strawberry squares. I was left with rather a large amount of dessicated coconut - tragedy! As I am now the new and improved thrifty Mrs H (having a baby is expensive, don't you know?!) I decided that my next baking project MUST include coconut.

Tomorrow we are driving to Ascot to stay with the very fab Mr S & Ms W for the weekend. It only seems polite to take some baked goods with us and destroy Ms W's wedding dress diet for the weekend.  I have made brownies - chocolate and coconut brownies. Hopefully, this will earn me friendship brownie points but lose me bridesmaid brownie points. C'est la vie.

I couldn't find a recipe that I was happy with and decided to make up my own. I won't be entering the Great British Bake Off anytime soon but these brownies aren't half bad (I didn't mistake salt for sugar). My only criticism is that they could be lighter but I imagine that is my fault for not whisking the eggs enough. They are yummy - gorgeously chocolaty and gooey but with the added oomph of the dessicated coconut. They are also very moreish and Mr S and Ms W should be very grateful that we still have enough to take tomorrow!

Yummy Chocolate and coconut brownies (image courtesy of BBC Good Food. If I need to remove this image or give anyone credit for copyright reasons then please let me know.)

Chocolate and coconut brownies

I used a 16 " square brownie tin and ended up with 9 big chunks of brownie but you can use a bigger tin if you have one.  

Ingredients

 75g cocoa powder (normally I use melted chocolate when I make brownies but I thought that these could run the risk of being too sweet. I decided that cocoa powder would give a little bitterness to the brownies and work perfectly with the coconut).
100g dessicated coconut
100g unsalted butter
75g plain flour
250g golden caster sugar
2 medium sized eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
A pinch of salt

Method

Place the butter and cocoa powder into a heat proof bowl. Place the bowl over a saucepan of barely simmering water (do not let the base of the bowl touch the water) and allow to melt. I always melt my butter and chocolate in a steamer. It takes a little longer but the end result is brilliant. Once melted leave on the side to cool a little.

Place the eggs, sugar and vanilla extract into a clean bowl and whisk together until pale and thick. 

Add the egg mixture to the melted butter and cocoa and whisk to combine.

Sift the flour and salt together and then fold them slowly into the chocolate mixture (I added my flour in three portions).

Fold the dessicated coconut into the mixture and make sure it is well combined.

Pour the mixture into the brownie tin and place in the oven to bake for 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin.

To serve, remove from the baking tray and cut the brownie into squares while still warm. If you would like then you can sprinkle them with icing sugar and/ or some more coconut. Our brownies have to go in transit tomorrow and so I have left them au naturel.

Happy baking!

Hugs

Mrs H

xxxx

PS What have you all been up to over the past year? I'd love to hear in the comments and please feel free to share anything that you've been baking!
PPS I have just realised that I keep on referring to "tomorrow" but as the time is now 00.25 "tomorrow" is now "today". Night night. x