I’ve had this recipe for more than 20 years. That’s not the same thing as saying I knew where it was – or even that I knew I had it – but I remember exactly when it appeared in my life. It came from my flatmate Kim’s half-sister Kirsty, but where she found it is anyone’s guess. Kirsty came to stay in our tumbledown flat in Mt Cook in about 1996. Kim was doing criminology Masters, Sally was working in a CD store, I was dying of boredom as an admin assistant and Steve was combining his Masters study with driving the cable car. We had no money and lots of good times.
I can’t remember why Kirsty turned up, but she was a curly-haired bundle of energy and a great guest. The flat, a creaky wooden two-up, two-down with a dodgy extension out the back, was the sort of place that felt like it would blow over in a strong wind. Now it’s probably worth a million dollars, but at the time it was pretty rough around the edges (and in the middle).
At some point during her stay, Kirsty produced this recipe, or Kim had it dictated to her on the phone by someone. It’s written on a coffee-stained piece of A4 that contains other, more cryptic, messages such as ‘optometrist, Tuesday’, an address in Howick and a note from Kirsty to Kim about borrowing clothes for tomorrow. Ah, they were simpler times.
Anyway, I still recall how incredible this was to eat – a big, fat slab of chocolate deliciousness. It turns out that it’s just as good as I remember. I thought I better record it here in case the piece of paper disappears (it’s taken me a major clean-out to find it and I’d rather not go through that again).
Kim and Kirsty’s chocolate slab
I know this contains huge amounts of butter, sugar and chocolate (the blessed trinity), but it makes a lot of servings and no one’s forcing you to eat the whole thing in one go, are they?
250g unsalted butter
1 Tbsp espresso coffee powder
1 ½ cups hot water
200g dark chocolate, chopped
2 cups caster sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 ½ cups self-raising flour
¼ cup cocoa
Heat the oven to 160C and grease and line a brownie tin.
Melt the butter, water and coffee in a large pot set over medium heat. Remove from the heat, then add the chocolate and sugar. Stir until smooth. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating until smooth. Add the vanilla. Sift over the dry ingredients and fold together until combined.
Pour into the prepared tin and bake for about 60-80 minutes, until the middle is set. Allow to cool before removing from the tin and cutting into generous slabs. Dust with top with a mixture of cocoa and icing sugar before serving. Makes about 25 large pieces.
I love finding old notes on recipes – dishes really are so much more when they have a bit of history. This looks delicious
Delicious. This is just the kind of happy dessert that I used to make and eat back when times were simpler (and I was less worried about butter, sugar and chocolate). It’s the sort of thing that I used to slice finely and call a “chocolate terrine” if I was trying to impress someone but mostly it was chunks dumped on to plates. I really must get around to sorting through all my tattered bits of food-stained paper from years ago. I’m certain that nobody ever wanted to borrow my clothes, though, and I really don’t blame them.
I loved this story and appreciate your share! I have a friend that over the last 30 plus years have exchanged, lost , and made recipes that hold up to the years as our classics. Now we each have our own book of favorites to pass on.