It's that time again ....Chocolate Courgette Brownie

This week the courgette glut has begun.  The plants are established and flowering well with some warm days.  The raspberries are just finishing and we have been so spoilt by a great crop over more than four weeks.

What's a courgette (from the French) you might be asking?  You might know it as zucchini (from the Italian) - two different words for Curcurbia pepo or summer squash.  

This recipe helps use up the surplus and you can use the slightly too big ones (but not the marrow-sized ones).  It is more cake-like rather than gooey, and I like it as a dessert with a dollop of cream or ice cream, fresh raspberries or berry coulis.  It's great to share a good sized sample around the neighbourhood too with the recipe and enough courgettes to make it!!  

Chocolate courgette brownie

 1 ½  cups white and ½ cup wholemeal flour)

1 and ½ teaspoons baking soda (bicarbonate of soda)

1/3 cup cocoa

7/8 cup white sugar

2 eggs

2 cups grated courgette (zucchini)

½ cup vegetable oil (not olive)

1 teaspoon vanilla

½ cup chopped walnuts

Pre-heat oven 175 degrees C.

Sift dry ingredients (except sugar).  Combine other ingredients, including sugar, except walnuts.  Add dry ingredients to wet and stir in walnuts

Pour into lined 24 cm square shallow cake tin.

Cook for approximately ½ hour - test with skewer - it needs to come out clean and dry (if it is gooey it is not cooked enough).

Leave to cool on a rack, still in the tin, before cutting.