A very clever brownie trick

Today’s blog is very chocolaty! Yesterday, we were lucky enough to be treated to high tea at the Michelangelo Hotel in Sandton – a reward for some charity fundraising my husband did recently - see here. We took our little boy along for his first experience of a chocolate fountain, and the amount of joy it gave him was priceless. He dipped strawberries and marshmallows in the fountain, but my theory is that anything you dip into a chocolate fountain just tastes great! The sugar rush afterwards was something to behold – like having that pink mechanical rabbit from the Duracell TV ads in the back of the car, but on steroids!

Incidentally, the term ‘high tea’ originates from Victorian England and originally referred to the meal we now call dinner, eaten between 5 and 7pm. Traditionally, high tea was eaten by middle to upper class children (whose parents would have a more formal dinner later) or by labourers, miners and the like when they came home from work. The ‘high’ in the name refers to the time of day – as in high noon – to distinguish it from afternoon tea, which was taken at about 3pm. Somewhere along the line ‘high tea’ must have gradually moved earlier in the day, but no one knows how!

Talking about sugar rushes, I want to share with you this clever trick that I saw on the TV show, Barefoot Contessa. If you want to make your chocolate brownies even better, spoon smooth peanut butter on the batter just before you put it in the oven. With a knife, swirl it around the brownie batter. Do not be to overzealous or your butter will disappear into the batter – you want to see it on top of the brownies. They look pretty and are very decadent!