Rather odd (but yummy) chocolate brownies.....

I don't claim to be the World's Best Baker, but I much prefer to make my own cakes and cookies - store bought ones always look amazing but they seldom taste as good. Using the Power of Google I found this recipe last night, and it's by a lady who's recipes I've used before, but this one made me go out and buy the book (not literally, I went onto Amazon and ordered it...)

They are very quick and easy to make, however I think next time I make them, and believe me, there definitely will be a next time, I'll use a little less cocoa powder and possibly make them as cupcakes instead of in a brownie tin.

Here they are in all their glory:

This is the recipe as I made them:

Ingredients (makes 12)

85g Dark Chocolate (I used 74% cocoa solids)
85g Plain Flour
25g Cocoa Powder (maybe tweak to 20g - they are very very chocolately)
1/4 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
150g Light Soft Brown Sugar
1/2 tsp Espresso Powder
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
2tbsp semi skimmed milk with a dash of lemon juice
1 egg
100g Light Mayonnaise (I know!!!!!!!)

Method:

1. Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of hot water (or in the microwave if you can do this without totally destroying the chocolate, which is what I do each and every time I've tried it), then leave to cool slightly. 
2. Meanwhile measure out the flour, cocoa and bicarb into another bowl and set aside.
3. Grab your melted chocolate bowl and add to it the sugar, coffee, vanilla extract and milk mixture and stir together with a tablespoon of warm water. Then add the egg (I didn't bother beating it first) and the mayonnaise and stir until smooth and glossy. 
4. Sift in the flour/cocoa/soda mix and fold in gently without over-mixing.
5. Scrape into a prepared baking tin - I originally used the size she specified (19cm square) but there wasn't really enough mixture to spread into the corners. I panicked at this point.
6. Bake in a preheated oven at 180C/fan, 160C/Gas 4 for 30 minutes - although I found that about 22 minutes was more than enough for my gas oven.

As I said, I thought there wasn't enough mixture to fill the brownie tin but actually the mix does rise a lot during baking and makes 12 decent sized pieces. Mine worked out at 160 calories per portion (that's 1 brownie btw....)