When it comes to my love for Chocolate, I am pretty sure I am up there with Bruce Bogtrotter!

I never thought I had much of a sweet tooth growing up; my Dad is a Dentist who’d bring photos of bad cases home to show his four kids what would happen if we ate too much sugar. Total scare mongering at its finest! And my Momma, well she is an absolute boss in the kitchen when it comes to hearty, wholesome, savoury food. So the only time I would get my chocolate fix would be if I made a trip to the local shop with left over lunch money, or on a Sunday when my parents were craving it themselves, and then as I later discovered - if I was to bake something with chocolate in.

I was 12 when my Mom bought me my first cookbook for my birthday. I started playing with recipes, doing full kitchen take overs where my parents would be put on a strict kitchen ban. Roping in my sisters, and maybe a friend, we would cook a full three course spread. The kitchen would be set up like a mini restaurant for us to do service, we would then critique the food whilst devouring it together around the table. It wasn’t until after a stint of making chocolate rice crispy cakes in muffin containers as our dessert, that I up’d my game to Brownies. I became infatuated with getting the consistency of the brownie right. Spending long afternoons hunting through the mountain of cook books hoarded by my Mom in search of the best recipe. They had to be fudgey, finger liking brownies with chocolate chunks on top for me to be satisfied!

But it wasn’t long until I got distracted by my natural affinity for cooking savoury food; and so my short lived baking career came to a halt.

And then Isolation happened.

An old love flame, alight and burning bright has led me here yet again!

It makes me wonder, would I have been able to eat that entire cake in Matilda?

If you gave me one of my Special Fudge Brownies, I am pretty sure there would be no stopping me.

A note on baking edibles and using this recipe to make special brownies.

Scroll down for recipe.

I have always felt the need to be very open when it comes to my views on consuming cannabis and accessing alternative medicine. Don’t get me wrong, I am not an advocate for everyone to get onboard the bandwagon, in fact I often tell people that if they have had a bad experience they should not try it again unless they are very well informed. But what I do advocate is its legalisation, its medicinal use, and access to important information surrounding the safe consumption of cannabis. Its like alcohol. Imagine walking into an off license, and all the alcohol on display looks the same, with no labels. You were looking for Gin, as vodka doesn’t agree with you causing you to be aggressive and experience memory blanks. But you accidentally buy, and drink, a very strong Vodka as there was no information about what you were consuming. Your experience will likely be negative especially if consumed in the wrong environment. Well, that is how I view cannabis. How are people meant to safely consume it if majority of us don’t know what we are buying? And nor do we know what is best suited to us personally as there is so much variety and differing quality levels out there? In the same breath, as with alcohol, some people just shouldn’t do it.

So for me in lockdown, and as someone that has been experiencing anxiety in ways I haven’t before, I continued to develop my self care canna products in order to effectively micro dose during isolation. Using only cannabis which I knew suited me personally and measuring doses that I know would put me in exactly the place I wanted to be mentally - not knocking me out for a few days.

This is the recipe I have developed specifically for making edibles at home, and for friends. Its high in fat content so holds the THC well and can be kept in the fridge for a week or so. Depending on the strength of your Canna-butter you may want to either do a split of normal and canna butter to manage potency levels. Or just completely replace butter with Cannabutter and then measure potency once baked.

When deciding this, I would advise testing the strength of your butter first by putting 1/2 teaspoon on some toast and seeing how you feel after an hour. This should give you an understanding of what 2.5g of butter feels like. You can then assess how much you’d like to use across a whole batch.

Once brownies are baked, test 10g of brownie and wait minimum of 1 hour to feel effects and assess potency.

Don’t eat more than 10g of brownie in first test as this is the ideal amount then be able to portion brownie size accordingly. Always wait 1 hour minimum to feel effects. Remember that edibles are considered more potent than smoking as you are digesting the THC opposed to taking it in through your respiratory system. Doing it this way you will know what you can handle - scaling your bite size up or down from there.

Double Choco Fudgy Brownies

Ingredients

225g Dark Chocolate, broken up and melted in glass or metal bowl over boiling water (save some for sprinkling on top)
50g white chocolate chunks, broken up for sprinkling on top
170g unsalted butter - hot, melted to help make a crackly top, can be switched for Cannabutter, melt on low heat.
250g Sugar - I use 50:50 split of dark brown muscovado sugar and white caster sugar to create better fudgy texture
3 medium eggs - organic is best
2 tsp vanilla essence
95g All purpose flour
30g cocoa powder
2 tsp salt + flaked sea salt for ontop (optional)

Method

Preheat oven 180 & line tray with baking parchment - I use a square dish 24cmx24cm featured in the first 2 images, but use what ever you have at home. Melt butter on low heat.
Get choc on to melt whilst in a medium bowl combine hot melted butter & sugar and whisk for a min or 2 really well - electric mixer or standing mixer is best.
Add eggs & vanilla essence, continue beating until mix is lighter in colour - 1-2mins
Mix in melted choc - not too hot or will cook the eggs
Sift in flour, cocoa & salt. Gently fold dry ingredients into wet ingredients until just combined - DO NOT over beat as this will effect the crackly top and texture (adding too much air will make it cake like) that we want when baked.
Pour batter into prepped tray, smoothing out top and sprinkling left over choc chunks.
Bake for 20-25mins until centre no longer jiggles/ just set to touch. Remember: they will continue to cook slightly in the residual heat. ‘Poking centre with a toothpick/fork’ test wont work with this recipe as we want it to be fudgy. If you do poke the centre and it comes out clean you have gone too far, you want it to have chocolate on.
Remove and allow to cool to room temp before slicing.

Top Tips to consider for baking process

Weigh out all your ingredients before beginning. Organisation and working clean is key when making baking easy.

Preheat your oven - 180C - and don’t bake for too long, remember setting a timer. There is a fine line where the brownies will start drying out/cooking through. I bake mine for 22mins. Suggested time is between 20-25mins depending on your oven and size of baking tray.
Bake these brownies on the top shelf of the oven - I have found that the middle shelf tends to dry them out faster which isn’t ideal for the consistency that we are looking for with these.
Leave to cool completely before cutting.
Sprinkle with high quality flaked sea salt to serve. Or serve warmed with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
You can use granulated sugar if that’s what you have at home
If using cannabutter, don’t burn butter when melting, use a low heat and keep a close eye.

Recipe: Double Chocolate Fudgy Brownies