These were always a favourite with the children, although for some inexplicable reason Tim always had to have them without walnuts. This summer I made them once a week for the builders that were working on my mother’s house – just keeping their blood sugar levels up.
- 100g butter
- 35g cocoa powder
- 2 large eggs
- 225g vanilla sugar (*)
- 50g self raising flour
- 100g walnuts pieces
Melt the butter gently, stir in the cocoa and leave it to cool for a few minutes. Grease an 8 inch square cake tin and line the bottom with a double layer of greaseproof paper.
Beat the eggs and sugar together till light and fluffy. Mix in the flour and finally stir in the walnut pieces. Pour the mixture into the tin and bake at 180C (fan oven) for 30 minutes. Don’t be tempted to leave them in longer than this – they are meant to be squidgy. Let them cool for 10 minutes in the tin then cut them into 12 squares and leave them on a rack to finish cooling.
* Vanilla sugar is just caster sugar which is stored with a vanilla pod in it. I keep a large jar of it, topping up the sugar when it gets low and replacing the vanilla pod every so often. It’s much better than vanilla essence.