Easy Chocolate Brownies

I was watching the Great British Bake Off for Comic Relief the other night where Alexa Chung made her salted caramel brownies. Apart from it making me want to grow my bangs longer, I just know they'd look like curtains on me - think Hanson circa 1996, and smother my next batch of brownies in salted caramel *droooools*; but it reminded me how versatile and hard to get wrong brownies are!

With a lot if baking; it's either done, over done or underdone! With mere minutes in between for it all to go wrong. Brownies are great because of the larger bracket of time in which they can be acceptably done! And much if that done time would be considered under done with other bakes. But not the brownie! Cooked and hard on the outside but soft and gooier on the inside. I always pull my brownies out of the oven a tad sooner than a recipe recommends or if I think it needs a couple more minutes, I hold back!If you do the skewer/cocktail stick test on most cakes your looking for the stick to come out clean,but not with a brownie. You want the very middle to be only just done; keeping in mind that it will keep cooking for a few minutes outside of the oven, and continue to set slightly after that.

Brownies are also one of those great recipes where you can chuck in a variety of confectionery goodies to suit your mood. I love deviating from recipes; swapping, adjusting or adding to the key flavours. Much to my boyfriends displeasure if he's in the kitchen! Just bearing witness to my tampering can bring him out in a cold sweat! He's very much a 'stick to the recipe' kind of guy.

To add some texture to a plain chocolate brownie, add chopped up chunks of chocolate or chocolate chips. I love finding those melted bits of chocolate hiding in a brownie. And for some aesthetic interest add white chocolate. Want to give your brownie a grown up twist, add some dark chocolate.
Making brownies with a specific person in mind? Add in their favourite confectionery nibbles.
Anything that has chocolate in or on it works well; Maltesers, Minstrels, Revels. Chopped up Mars Bars, Snickers, Crunchie, Toffee Crisp! Any chocolate snack or bar. I made some for my boyfriends last birthday and added in his favourite Peanut M&M's, he wasn't sorry for my recipe deviation then! And I've even seen people place Creme Egg halves on top of their brownie batter.

So if your looking for something really easy to bake this weekend, maybe an indulgent treat for Mothers Day, then give the brownie a go - you can't go wrong with this BBC GoodFood recipe.
What would you add to your brownie??