Chocolate brownies

There were significant birthdays in the lab last week but since everyone was distracted by Easter, they went by forgotten. I was going to make up for it by baking the Love Cake, but since it was already 11pm when I decided to get started, I chose instead to make brownies because lets face it, when there's no creaming the butter into the sugar, its a lot easier. I found a recipe online that seemed ok - but it used both cocoa and chocolate. I made it anyway (took a while) and while everyone praised the brownies, I decided the extra chocolate is a waste of time and resources. So I modified it. And it turned out fine :)

Ingredients
150g salted butter
1 cup cocoa powder
3-4large eggs (we only buy large eggs, I assume ppl who get small ones might want to put in four)
2 cups sugar (doesn't matter if it's castor or normal)
1 tsp vanilla essence
3/4 cup plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
250g choc chips (I prefer to use white here cos they look nice) or 150g macadamia nuts *EDIT - there is consensus that macadamia nuts are better due to texture and flavour changes).

Melt butter and add cocoa powder until it forms a blacky-brown paste and allow to cool.
Beat in the eggs, sugar and vanilla essence until smooth.
Sift the flour and baking powder straight into the egg mixture and fold in until all the flour lumps are gone.
Stir in the choc/nuts and pour into a brownie pan lined with baking paper
Bake at 170 degrees celsius for 45 mins in a fan-forced oven, then leave to cool in the tray.

The tops and edges should be nice and crunchy, the inside all fudgey. Don't make the mistake of putting them in the fridge - it makes the fudgey bits go hard! But when they warmed up, they were nice again :)

But for those who want original brownie, here it is:

INGREDIENTS
185g butter
185g dark chocolate
3 eggs
1 1/4 cups castor sugar
2/3 cup plain flour
1/2 cup cocoa
2/3 cup milk chocolate bits (or chopped chocolate)
2/3 cup white chocolate bits (or chopped chocolate)

METHOD
· Preheat oven to 170C.
· Butter and line a 20-centimetre square tin with baking paper.
· Melt butter and dark chocolate together. Beat eggs with sugar until pale and thick.
· Fold chocolate mixture into egg mixture.
· Sift flour and cocoa into mixture together with chocolate bits.
Spread into tin and cook for 35 minutes