Go ahead... bake some cookies!

Bon appétit!

Well, I am.

But that's hardly a reference. Because I always am. My next of kin inform me that I am way too culinary minded... most of my earliest childhood memories are food related... figures... but I dare to question heir judgement.

Anyhow,I thought that these windy, rainy and generally gloomy days might actually really call for some culinary comfort. And the best way to achieve that, is to hurry to your kitchen and start baking some mascarpone brownies.

For 25 slices of heaven, you'll have to go about it as follows:

- Preheat your oven to 175°C

- Melt 200 gr of pure black chocolate (I recommend "noir de noir" by Côte d'Or) together with 150 gr of butter (the kind you use to bake meat with, not the kind you put on sandwiches)

- Mix 250 gr of sifted plain flower with 30 gr of cacao powder, 250 gr of white caster sugar, 2 bags of vanilla sugar and a pinch of salt

- Now mix in 4 eggs, one at the time (use an electric mixer if you don't want it to feel like heavy duty exercise) and beat until you have a smooth dough

- Add the melted chocolate and 200 gr of mascarpone cheese to the dough and mix well

And then it's time to bring out your baking tin. Any tin will do but try to use a tin with dimensions as close as possible to 24 by 24 cm. This way, your dough will have the right amount of thickness for the given baking time. Put it all in a much smaller tin and the dough won't be baked through enough. Put it all in a tin way bigger than that and the brownies will be too hard and crisp.

Anyhow, a tin resembling 24 by 24 cm needs to be lined with baking paper to prevent the dough from sticking to it. Then just pour everything in there and bake for about 40 to 45 minutes.

After that, you should be left with a huge brownie which is crunchy on the top but still slightly moist inside. Take it out of the tin and let it cool before you slice it in square pieces.

And why not mount those pieces on a pretty plate, a dish or even better a cake stand as if it was a rocky mountain of chocolate.... and then perhaps dust them with some icing sugar for a snowy peak effect and pin a couple of plastic mushrooms in them just for campiness.

You'll be comforted for sure. You'll also never want to bake anything else anymore and therefore you'll gain give or take five pounds... A small risk for such a big joy!