Recipes
The following Brownies recipe is from the Recipes section of 
American Cooking in England.

Brownies                                    makes 24 2" x 2" squares (5 x 5cm)

Some people are pastry people, some people are chocolate people. Pastry people will fare fine in England while those of us who are keen on chocolate are pretty much limited to chocolate bars (not that I'm complaining). But once in awhile, a nice moist brownie would really hit the spot so I've included this recipe for those times. Brownies are a moist and chewy, chocolate cake that's cut into squares; the name 'brownie' is nothing more than a reference to its colour.

  Ingredients with the original American measurements:

  1 cup butter, softened

  1¾ cups (packed) light brown sugar

  1½ teaspoons vanilla extract

  5 ounces unsweetened chocolate

  5 eggs, beaten

  1 cup all purpose flour

  Optional: 1 cup chopped walnuts

Ingredients with British measurements (followed by metric):

10½ ounces butter, softened (300 g)

12 ounces light brown sugar (340 g)

1½ teaspoons essence of vanilla

5 eggs, beaten (medium sized)

3½ ounces cocoa powder (90 g)

4 ounces plain flour (113 g)

Optional: 5½ oz. chopped walnuts (160 g)

Procedure     Note: You'll need to allow enough time for the butter to soften before proceeding. Set it somewhere warm enough for it to soften but not melt -- melted butter won't work for this recipe.

Butter the inside of a 9" x 13" (23 x 33cm) baking pan. (I save butter wrappers and use them to grease pans, since they come ready-greased.)

Preheat the oven to 175° C or gas mark 4 (350° F).

In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar.

Add the vanilla and the beaten eggs, and combine using an electric whisk or hand mixer.

Add the cocoa powder and flour and continue beating until evenly mixed.

Add the nuts and stir them in with a spoon.

Pour the mixture into the greased baking pan and bake for 20-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. A handy cake-baking tip (and one that also applies to brownies) which I picked up from John Hadamuscin's book Special Occasions, is to lay foil loosely over the edges of the cake, if they're starting to dry out before the centre has finished cooking. This way the cake should be moist throughout -- not cracked and dried on the edges.

Once it's ready, lay the baking pan on a cooling rack to cool down. When it's ready, you don't need to remove the cake from the pan, just cut it into squares and serve. It's nice by itself or with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.