It’s Fairtrade Fortnight and to celebrate we wanted to share some of our favourite Fairtrade recipes with you.
Kia ora! Ko Ana tēnei (I'm the one with the sweetest tooth amongst our Common Good Coffee whānau!)
When I got married, my friends gave me a book of their favourite recipes and these brownies appeared in the book THREE times. They’re that good! They were a firm favourite years later at the Roskill Coffee Project and the Common Good Pop-Up. Customers begged for the recipe, and we gladly gave it away.
I first tried these brownies at my wonderful friend Barby Windsor's house. The recipe is super easy, super forgiving and is a fun one to do with little people. Even better, almost all of the ingredients are fair trade!!*
These dense rich brownies perfectly pair with Common Good Coffee any time of day. My personal preference is a Better Blend flat white or a Decaf Swiss Gold filter.
Enjoy :-)
Brownies (Adapted from Barby's friend Jan's recipe)
200g butter
1 C Fair Trade cocoa
2 C Fair Trade sugar
4 Free range eggs
1tsp Fairtrade vanilla essence
¾ C flour
1 tsp baking powder
200 - 250g Fairtrade chocolate roughly chopped.
Preheat the oven to 150C. Line a 20-21cm square tin with baking paper.
Melt butter and sift cocoa over. Mix.
Stir in sugar, eggs and vanilla essence.
Sieve in flour and baking powder.
Add chocolate and mix until well combined. Try not to eat all of the batter. Believe me, you’ll want to.
Spread into the tin.
Bake until the centre has just stopped wobbling. Somewhere between 40 to 55 minutes depending on your oven. (I tend to set the timer for 40 minutes the first time I use a new oven, check the brownie, and then check every five minutes until it’s done.)
Allow to cool and then cut into however many pieces you feel like.
This stores well for up to five days in an airtight container at room temperature. It also freezes well. I recommend making a double batch if you’re planning on freezing, ‘coz you’ll definitely want to eat some straight away!
*Fairtrade Fortnight is an event run by Fairtrade Australia and New Zealand that celebrates products that carry the Fairtrade Mark. However, there are some products used in this recipe that are currently only available in Aotearoa through Trade Aid as an WFTO Fair Trade certified business. The ultimate purpose of both certifications is to ensure that producers at the grass-roots are getting a fair deal.
