Slow Cooker Brownies

I'm not entirely sure that four hours is an acceptable time to wait for brownies. You could make every other brownie recipe on this blog and still have a good few hours left. I mean, I love my slow cooker, it gets used for things like soup, stews, pulled pork, poached chickens, stock, steaming puddings and makes the best baked beans. but four hours..?

Perhaps there should be a law against it but I'm a sucker for all things slow cooker and an equal sucker for trying out things that are a little kooky.

As I have a big slow cooker, it's oval rather than round, and I didn't want a paper thin brownie, I cooked mine in a cake tin, suspended on two saucers, rather than pouring the brownie batter straight into the slow cooker. The result was a wonderfully fudgey and chewy centred brownie with a firm edge.

Ingredients
200gr dark chocolate
125gr butter
200gr caster sugar
2 eggs
1tsp vanilla extract
1tbsp cocoa powder
170gr plain flour

2 heatproof saucers
125ml water
7inch cake tin, greased and lined

Method
1, Turn on your slow cooker to the low setting, set the two saucers into the bottom with the water. Attach the lid and prepare your cake tin.
2, In a saucepan, melt the butter and chocolate together over a low heat. When smooth, remove from the heat and stir in the sugar. Leave this to cool slightly before beating in the eggs and vanilla extract.
3, Sift in the cocoa powder and plain flour and fold through until just combined.
4, Pour into your prepared cake tin and smooth out the top.
5, Pop it into your slow cooker, on the saucers, and reattach the lid.
6, Slow cook/bake/steam (delete as appropriate), for three and a half hours. I know it'll be tempting to open up the lid but you'll lose precious heat and will have to cook it for longer.
7, After three and a half hours is up, turn it up to medium for half an hour. Now is the time to check, an inserted skewer may come out with a few smears of chocolate, but it should feel firm around the edges with a slightly softer centre. Turn out onto a wire cooling rack and cool slightly. It's delicious warm or cold.