N-n-n-nineteen!

Absolutely nothing to do with the rest of this blog post, but my beloved Manchester United have just won a record 19th League title (overtaking the 18 titles our bitter rivals Liverpool have won) so I'm rather happy!

Anyway, this morning started out like this:



That isn't a pathetically slow ordinary run - it's an 11-mile run! Slightly slower than I'd hoped (in my mind I wanted to aim for 1:45) but still a decent time seeing as it's over a year since we last ran that distance. At that point, 1:48 wouldn't have been disastrous for a 9.5-mile run, so you can see how far we've come since then!

Then this afternoon has been...well...eggy. Two fried eggs for lunch (with beans and wholemeal toast) and then another seven eggs for baking! First up was a Victoria sponge, which I've filled with that homemade lemon curd from last night and some lovely English strawberries.



And then some flourless chocolate brownies!



These are amazingly fudgy, rich and truffle-like. I can't remember where the recipe for these came from (it's one I've had for years) but it goes like this:

Flourless chocolate brownies

300g plain chocolate
150g unsalted butter, diced
50g cocoa powder, sifted
4 large eggs
200g caster sugar
100g chopped walnuts, pecans or hazelnuts (optional)
Icing sugar for dusting

Break up the chocolate and place in a heatproof bowl. Add the butter. Set the bowl over a pan of steaming, not boiling, water and melt gently, stirring frequently. Remove the bowl from the heat, stir in the cocoa powder, and set aside.

Place the eggs in a mixing bowl and beat well. Add the sugar and whisk thoroughly until pale in colour, very light and frothy and doubled in volume.

Using a large metal spoon, carefully fold in the chocolate followed by the nuts (if using).

Transfer the mixture to a greased and lined brownie tin (20.5 x 25.5cm) and spread evenly. Bake at 180C (350F) for 25-30 minutes, until the top of the brownie is just firm to the touch but the centre is still slightly soft.

Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before carefully transferring to a cooling rack. Dust with icing sugar when cool and cut into 12 pieces.