04 August 2017

Best Ever Need a Great Dessert Brownies (and a Grocery Shopping Update)

Best Ever Need a Great Dessert Brownie If you need a great dessert that won't break the budget and that will satisfy that chocolate craving this is the recipe. Click through for more ways live life debt free cashed up and laughing.
Best Ever Need a Great Dessert Brownies
Hannah and I did the grocery shopping for the month today and let me say straight up - I failed! I didn't go over budget, but I did buy some things that weren't on my list, and didn't buy some things that were.

I bought six bottles of cream from NQR, that weren't on the list, for $2.50 - that's 41 cents a 600ml bottle - too good to pass up and all I could fit in the freezer.

Then I made the mistake of checking out the Pelligrino's Friday specials and bought 5kg potatoes for $1.99, bananas for 99c/kg, two ice berg lettuce for 99 cents each and a cucumber - total $9.78. None of these things were on the list - failed again!

When I saw the price of butter at Aldi I had a little, tiny, in my own mind, tantrum. How can 500g of butter be over $4? At the rate it's going up in price I think I'll buy shares in a butter factory - it has to be a better ROI than gold or oil! Or buy a house cow and make my own.....hmmmm.... raw milk for cheese and drinking....real cream......shame we live in the middle of suburbia.

I didn't buy all the milk on the list, not enough freezer room and the milk available at Aldi expires on 9th, so I bought two and put $24 into my slush fund purse to buy more next week. And I only bought three blocks of cheese as we had a half a block in the fridge. I put the $6 in the slush fund purse in case it's needed before the month is up.

That leaves $45.22 in the slush fund purse for top-ups during the rest of the month.

I chose this month to not buy groceries, knowing full well that we would have visitors all through the month. We have friends coming for dinner this weekend and I need a dessert that will be mind-blowingly delicious, that will feed nine and that uses ingredients I already have in the pantry.

These brownies are perfect!

I have all the ingredients, I know everyone loves chocolate and honestly they really are the best brownies ever. They're moist and gooey, fudgey, rich, delicious and cost just $3.40 to make!

I'll clarify the cost and let you know that all the ingredients, apart from the cocoa and the choc chips, were from Aldi. The cocoa is Woolworths generic and the choc chips are Cadbury that were bought on half-price sale at Coles. If you use full-price and/or brand name ingredients then the cost will rise - substantially. Unfortunately the end result won't reflect that increase in cost so go generic ingredients if you can.

I am generous and cut this dessert into 10 squares, although the original recipe said it would make 12. For 34 cents a serve, it's a budget friendly but extravagant dessert for special occasions.

And lastly, I serve them with a dollop of cream, but you could use ice-cream or a nice thick dollop of Greek yoghurt (I like this, it cuts the sweetness beautifully).

Best Ever Need a Great Dessert Brownies

Ingredients:
¾ cup cocoa powder
1- ½ cups sugar
1 cup plain flour
½ cup dark chocolate chips (or milk or white - whatever you like, they're all good)
225g butter, melted
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract

Method:
Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Line a 20cm square tin or casserole dish with baking paper. Sift dry ingredients, then add eggs, melted butter and vanilla. Mix with a wooden spoon to combine.  Pour into pan. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes. Remove from oven while centre is still moist and gooey - DO NOT OVER BAKE! Let cool in tin before cutting.

Serves: 10 - 12 (go on, be indulgent - cut it into 10, you know you want to!)

4 comments:

  1. Cream for that price I would turn into butter which was on your list. I also comes with the bonus of buttermilk!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I probably will go back and get more and do just that :) It was an unplanned purchase, not something I usually do so I wasn't quite thinking butter, but more scones and quiche for summer meals.

      Delete
  2. Rebecca FinlaysonSunday, August 06, 2017

    With the supermarket war going on again with coles and woolies it wont be long til one of them slash the price of butter. And that will make aldi bring the price down aswell. Its all just a big waiting game. Waiting for the best price possible

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Maybe. It could be like milk, cheese and now eggs. But a lot of our butter goes overseas, creating shortages here, and pushing prices up. Butter has almost doubled in price in 20 months - that's a huge increase that is not being passed onto dairy farmers. I'd still rather buy butter and pay more, than use margarine though.

      Delete

Thanks so much for taking the time to leave a comment...I just love hearing from you!

Just a couple of things:

Please don't use your comments to advertise your business or goods for sale, any such comments will be removed.

And please include your name, ANONYMOUS POSTS WILL NOT BE PUBLISHED AND WILL BE RECORDED AS SPAM.