Chocolate brownies

These tempting bites melt in the mouth, but have a bit of texture from the hand cut chocolate chips. Seriously calorific it's very hard not to have another, or another or another....

115g plain chocolate
115g butter
3 eggs
200g sugar
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla essence
pinch of salt
140g plain flour
170g chocolate chips (or plain/milk chocolate chopped up)

Preheat the oven to 180º. Line a 13 x 9 baking tin with greaseproof paper and grease the paper thoroughly. If you haven't got greaseproof don't worry, just grease the tray well. It's just trickier to get them out at the end!
Melt the chocolate and butter in the a bain marie or if you haven't got one a heat proof bowl on top of a saucepan of simmering water.
Beat the eggs, sugar, vanilla and salt. Stir in the the melted chocolate mixture and sift over the flour. Fold this all together and add your chocolate chips.
Pour the mixture into the baking tin (with or without the greaseproof paper), and spread the mixture evenly. Put them in the oven for about 30 minutes, until they are set. Prod with a skewer to test them. They should be slightly sticky still but with no runny mixture on the skewer when you take it out. You must be careful not to over cook the brownies otherwise you loose the moisture and they become dry and crumbly. It's best to keep checking them towards the end of the 30 minutes to make sure. If they need to stay in a bit longer, keep an eye on them!
Let the tray cool and run a knife around the edge. Invert the cooled cake slab to turn it out. Then re-invert the slab to the right way up. Then you can cut them into what size squares you want and plate them up for afternoon tea.
I always steal the crumbs that are left!

These are also very good as a dessert for the kids with some locally made vanilla ice-cream. Or if you want to be truly indulgent make them into a 'death by chocolate' treat in a fancy knickerbocker glass dish with some crumbled brownies, chocolate ice-cream, vanilla ice-cream, chocolate sprinkles or smarties, some squirty cream in layers, and of course chocolate sauce on top.