I have attempted baking on a few occasions and I have failed more times than succeeded. I generally approach cooking with an intuitive and overconfident attitude. That, coupled with my impatience, is a recipe for disaster (specially, in baking), which many times, than not, ends up in the dustbin. And that hurts because I hate wasting food. All this, in turn, holds me back from trying to bake again. So, I usually have to wait for a fresh whiff of inspiration to get me baking again. 

My inspiration, this time, came in the form of two old cocoa powder cans, which have been sitting, ignored, in my kitchen shelf. I must have forgotten about the first can and bought the other one…. only to discover that I still had cocoa powder at home. And it must be really old. The one on the right is the older one and its cover already has faded colors! They were still very good so I decided to make some brownies to finish them before I left Delhi. 

So, the ingredients that you will need for this recipe are as follows:

• 1 cup cocoa powder (Coincidentally, I had exactly 1 cup left in the two cans).
• 150 g homemade butter (Remember the buffalo butter that I made?).
• 2 eggs.
• 1 cup sugar (Use brown sugar if you want. I didn’t want to buy new ingredients that I couldn’t finish. So, I just used the white sugar that I had).
• 1 tsp vanilla essence.
• 1/2 cup flour.
• 1 large pomegranate.

You will need to melt the butter in very low heat. So, you might want to use a double boiler. For that, take a pot and fill it with water. And then, place the pan that you will be melting your butter in, on top of it. 

Heat the pot and bring the water to a boil. I have taken them down from the flame to bring it to a sunnier place for a picture. But you have to work these steps with the boiler on the flame. Place the butter in it and let it melt. Sorry, but you will see a lot of this old aluminum pan of mine in this post. I didn’t have any other pan that fitted in the pot.

When the butter starts melting, add in the cocoa powder.

Stir them well till the butter melts completely. 

Now, add in the sugar and keep stirring. 

Heat it till the sugar melts/dissolves and it becomes a smooth mixture as shown in the picture.

Now, you can turn off the heat and take out your pan from the pot. Add in the flour and mix them well.

Beat the eggs and pour it in the mixture. 

Stir and mix them quickly to ensure the egg is uniformly distributed in the mixture. Add the vanilla essence and mix well. Then, keep it aside.

Now, take a baking pan and butter its surface.

Put a layer of pomegranate.

And slowly, pour in the mixture on it.

There you go! 

Now, bake it at 170 degrees celsius for 30 minutes in a preheated oven.

And you will get something like this.

Turn it upside down, and you will get this. Let it cool down to room temperature and then keep it in the fridge for an hour to firm it up. Take it out and cut it up with a heated up knife into the desired size/pieces. 

I take this time as a successful baking experience. My brownies were fudgy and soft. This is definitely encouraging me to bake more!

And I am happy to have finished off my cocoa powder on a successful recipe.

Feel free to comment and let me know if I can improve it further. 

Hindsight: I should have put a layer of parchment paper inside the baking tray. I had a hard time trying to get the brownie cake out of it.

• Serving: 8-10
• Calories: 2409 (150 each piece. 16 pieces in all)