Banana, Oatmeal and Pecan Nut Brownie

Banana Oatmeal and Pecan Nut Brownie

What do you do when you're overweight but are incapable of sticking to a diet? You make yourself a Banana, Oatmeal and Pecan Nut Brownie, slice a few strawberries, dig out the whipped cream and settle down to surf the Net. Recharge to start the diet another day.

I made a batch of said brownies adapting one of Jamie Oliver's brownie recipes. The Teenager is at the Golf Club playing golf, the Babies are having a playdate with JoW's girls. I'm having a bit of me time at last, though this could only mean that the urge to cook or bake something would arise and plans to start learning how to knit or do a wash or bring the ski suits to the laundry shop would be forgotten, postponed (yet again). I would have called my Mum since Mother's Day is round the corner, but nowadays she goes to bed early and it's already nearly midnight in Singapore.

Thought I could go ahead and bake a big portion and share part of it with P. Share the calories :-)

Banana, Oatmeal and Pecan Nut Brownie :

200g good-quality Dark Chocolate

250g Butter

50g Pecan nuts (roughly crushed)

1 large ripe Banana (mashed)

300g Sugar

65g Flour

1 Tsp Baking Powder

50-80g Cocoa powder

4 large Eggs

3 Tbsp Oats

Break the chocolate into small pieces and slice the butter into small cubes. Put them in a large bowl and microwave on high for a minute or 2. Stir to mix well and set aside to cool. When it's slightly cool, stir in the chopped nuts and mashed banana.

In another bowl, add the sugar and sift in the flour, baking powder and cocoa powder. Pour this mixture into the butter-chocolate-nuts-banana mixture and mix well.

Stir in 2 Tbsp of the oats.

Beat the eggs till they are smooth in a bowl and then pour the beaten egg into the flour-butter mixture. Stir well till the batter is smooth.

The batter

Line a square or rectangular baking tin with greaseproof paper and sprinkle the remaining oats on top. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180°C for around 25 minutes. Cake should still be moist on the inside, skewer should not come out clean.

Cool and slice into squares and serve with some whipped cream, mascarpone or crème fraîche.