The BFG... Big Friendly Gateau

There are times I can be completely and utterly dense. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has had that "Errr..." moment when the blindly obvious really doesn't make sense or come to mind. I remember sitting in one of my GCSE exams, many years ago, thinking how on earth you spelt "the". Yes, how to spell "the", blindly obvious, simple and oh so basic, but I remember sitting there for what seemed like 5 minutes trying to work it out. Please tell me I'm not the only one, please!

The same thing happened when I started seeing "BFG" on dessert menus. Now for anyone who didn't avidly read Roald Dahl as a child, and an adult, this probably hasn't happened to you. Whilst for 99.9% of the population would say "Oh yes, Black Forest gateaux" for me it was "Yippee, someone's created a Road Dahl BFG themed dessert. Cool!" Oh dear... It really did take placing a BFG in front of me to realise that we were talking about Black Forest gateaux; the cake dessert of vivid childhood memories.

There is a little special place in my heart of Saturday morning shopping in Coventry City centre, with my Mum and visiting Druckers for a cake stop. Going through the little bakery counter and heading upstairs to the dimly light café with wicker based chairs and little pots of sugar. Coffee and a juice would always be accompanied by a slice of black forest gateaux with the end covered in chocolate sprinkles and a squirt of cream topped with a cherry. Isn't it amazing the little details you remember from your childhood?

So, when we got home from our Christmas holiday and I got stuck back into baking, I had a quick trawl through what was left in the cupboards and fridge. I had had a plan to make marshmallows with brandy soaked cherries but it never happened. However, I had made a start and set the cherries soaking and popped them in the fridge for safe keeping. Lots of things came to mind to use them with, and I had toyed with clafoutis, but I hadn't enough cherries. With the health kick being back in full swing after Christmas indulgence, something full of butter and sugar really wasn't on the cards either. Then I remembered a conversation I'd had at a Weight Watchers meeting and the lady had told me she'd been using low-fat mayonnaise as a fat substitute in her baking... Get in!

I've made brownies many, many times before and I have a tried and trusted recipe that I've honed over the years, but it is on the buttery side and I thought it would be nice to create something a little healthier. After all, a decent brownie is quite rich and you don't really need a massive piece to get the taste and the chocolate hit you're looking for. So I had a scour of the wonderful world of the internet for baking with mayonnaise.

My biggest concern about switching the butter for mayonnaise was the taste. I was a little worried that it would taint the chocolate flavour, so I employed a little magic that I use with my chocolate cake; add a shot of fresh coffee. The coffee enriches the chocolate flavour and helps to get rid of any tang of mayonnaise. I also substituted some of the caster sugar I would normally use, with some dark muscovado sugar, again to enrich the flavour and give the brownies the nice dark brown colour of the black forest gateaux I remember.

Now, if you keep it there the brownies aren't too bad on the fat side; they work out quite good on the Weight Watchers ProPoints front, and if you're watching what you eat it's probably best not to get any further with the recipe. However, if you have some weekly points left or you're not that bothered about keeping the recipe on the healthier side, then my Other Half can whole-heartedly contest to the Black Forest Brownie stacks being pretty darn tasty!

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