rum and ginger brownies

Sometimes there are days when it feels like the words are just pouring out of me and I am powerless to hold back the torrent. 

On these days, every email that I send is at least three times as long as it needs to be. I find the 140-character limit on twitter to be unreasonably limiting. I ring my mother just for the sake of having someone to talk to and keep up a constant stream of chatter as soon as my boyfriend gets home from work. 

And then there are days like today when every sentence seems to take a disproportionate amount of effort and I look at the screen wondering what the last two hours really have to show for themselves. All I really want to do is to sit quietly and read other people's words and not have to come up with any of my own.

On reflection, this is probably the result of a very busy sociable couple of weeks which have used up all my small talk and left me with a craving for the peace and quiet that I'm not going to get for another couple of weeks.

And so today, I will just leave you with these brownies and return to my own little world. 

I'm not a big fan of desserts that taste too overwhelmingly boozy and so the rum is pretty subtle, more of a note of interest in the background than anything else. You can up the alcohol a bit if you're so inclined although it will make the resulting brownies slightly more delicate. Dark chocolate and ginger is always a winning combination - the little chunks of crystallised ginger are the real stars of these brownies and bring a touch of fire to each bite.

~

Rum and ginger brownies

Yield: 16 brownies

Ingredients

• 150g (2/3 cup) unsalted butter
• 125g (5 oz) dark chocolate, chopped
• 150g (2/3 cup) unrefined caster/granulated sugar
• 120g (2/3 cup) light brown soft sugar
• 4 medium eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 40g (just over 1/2 cup) cocoa powder
• 90g (2/3 cup + 1 tablespoon) flour (I used buckwheat flour but it has quite a distinctive taste so feel free to use whatever you prefer)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons finely chopped crystallised ginger (optional - my dad felt there was too much ginger in these brownies, I disagreed but I will leave you to make up your own mind about how much to use)
• 2 1/2 tablespoons dark rum

Cooking Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F. Crease a 23cm square baking tin.
2. Melt together the butter and chocolate in the microwave or in a bowl over a pan of simmering water.
3. When melted, take off the heat and scrape into a large bowl. Add the sugars and stir with a wooden spoon to combine.
4. One at a time, add your eggs and continue to mix with your spoon. With the last egg, throw in the vanilla.
5. Fold in the flour, cocoa, baking powder, ginger, nutmeg and salt until just combined. Finally, stir through 2 tablespoons of the chopped ginger and the rum. Pour into a baking tin, scatter with the rest of the ginger and bake for 20-22 minutes until the brownies are coming away from the side and feel set if you touch them gently on top. Allow to cool in the tin before cutting into squares.