A deceptively easy, yet elegant dessert with so many possible variations! I explain the different methods between using gelatin and agar-agar* (suitable for vegan/vegetarian/non-pork diets).

*Agar-agar is known as "kanten" in Japanese and is a natural gelling agent made from seaweed; available in many health/natural food stores, it's an ideal replacement for animal gelatin and is tasteless, odourless and colourless.

Once you go homemade grano, you never go back!

These are chewy and moist, and contain much less sugar than your typical store-bought bars. They are also infinitely adaptable to whatever nuts, dried fruit, grains and flours and oils happen to be on hand - test out different versions and see which you prefer.

These are some of the yummiest, most moist brownies ever! And the best part - you only need to dirty one bowl, which I will happily come over and lick clean.

The recipe comes from one of my favourite bloggers - www.smittenkitchen.com. That's also where you will find the salted caramel version of these brownies - I have decreased the sugar in both recipes.


Yield: one 8x8-inch pan of brownies, cut into whatever size suits your fancy.

Ingredients:
3 ounces (85 grams) unsweetened chocolate, roughly chopped (*I like the Camino organic for these)
1 stick (4 ounces or 115 grams) unsalted butter, plus extra for pan
3/4 cup (175 grams) granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon (5 ml) vanilla extract
Heaped 1/4 teaspoon flaky sea salt
2/3 cup (85 grams) all-purpose flour

Method:
1. Pre-heat oven to 350°F. Line an 8×8-inch square baking pan with parchment, extending it up two sides. Butter the parchment.
2. In a medium heatproof bowl over gently simmering water, melt chocolate and butter together until only a couple of un-melted bits remain. Off the heat, stir until smooth and fully melted.
3. Whisk in sugar, then eggs, one at a time, then vanilla and salt. Stir in flour with a spoon or flexible spatula.
4. Transfer to pan, smooth out top with spatula and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in centre comes out clean.
5. Let cool for 10-15 minutes (if you can wait that long!) and cut into desired pieces.

These are deliciously dark and tender and can keep for several days in a closed tin - although they rarely last that long! A classic recipe adapted from my culinary school days...

Preheat oven to 350F.
Yield: about 2 dozen cookies

Ingredients:
70g unsalted butter
70g brown sugar
50g white sugar
1 medium egg
1 tsp. vanilla
90g all-purpose flour (you may substitute pastry flour)
20g powdered cocoa (I love the duBarry 70%, but Fry's will do the trick!)
1g fine sea salt
1g baking soda
150g chopped dark chocolate (use the best quality you can as it really makes a difference in the finished product)
optional: 50-75g chopped nuts (roast whole nuts first - just pop them in as the oven is warming up)

Method:
1. Cream butter and both sugars; add in egg and vanilla
2. Sift together dry ingredients and fold in to butter/sugar mixture.
3. Add in chocolate pieces and nuts if using (make sure to let nuts cool first)
4. Spoon onto parchment-covered baking tray (I use a 30 metal portion scoop - equivalent to a 1oz. portion)
4. Bake for 8-10 minutes at 350 or until edges are firm - no longer! They will look under-cooked because of all the chocolate chunks, but will cool to perfection.