Chocolate and beetroot brownie.

Today is my mother's birthday! And tomorrow's my sister's! So all during the night, from 1:30am until about 6am, without them knowing, I baked, not one, but TWO cakes - can't have a birthday without cake! One was a chocolate sponge cake with cinnamon cream cheese icing and the other was this lovely little treat - chocolate and beetroot brownie! I shall not go into any detail of the chocolate sponge cake as it's just too naughty and fattening to mention! But the brownies are amazing. You wouldn't expect beetroot and chocolate to taste good together, but trust me, they REALLY do! They taste absolutely gorgeous! By far the best brownie I have ever had eveerrr! Super gooey and super chocolatey - exactly what every brownie should be. Mmmmm! WARNING: This is a very very messy recipe.. So if you do try it, be prepared for lots of pinky purple marks everywhere (especially your hands) and lots of washing up! Try not to get any beetroot on your clothes or any material, as it stains - so remember to wear rubbishy clothes whilst making this! I cut this brownie into 30 little squares, and each square is approx. 109 kcal. I found this recipe on page 59 in the local magazine, SalisburyLife (click here for, what should be, the e-mag). So here's what I did:

Ingredients:
- 500g fresh beetroot (you can use pre-cooked if you prefer, but it may not be so satisfying!) - (I only used about 450g in mine..)
- 100g butter - (I used Lurpack spreadable lightest.)
- 200g dark chocolate
- 5ml vanilla essence
- 250g caster sugar - (I used mainly golden caster sugar with a little bit of white, as that's all we had in the house..)
- 3 eggs
-25g cocoa powder
- 100g plain flour


Method:
1. Preheat oven to 160°C.
2. Peel and chop beetroot, add a splash of water and microwave in a clingfilmed bowl for 12 minutes until cooked.
3. Butter and line a 20x30cm tin.
4. Chop up chocolate and butter and then blend with the drained, cooked beetroot (smart cookies will recogise this as the potentially messy part!).
5. Put vanilla, sugar and eggs into a bowl and whisk until pale and foamy (about 2 minutes).
6. Fold in the beetroot mix, retaining the air as much as possible, then sift in the flour and cocoa powder and fold these in gently too.
7. Pour into a tin and bake for 25-30 minutes until it just quivers a little in the centre.
8. Cool and cut into squares, optionally decorating with a little melted white chocolate. (White chocolate topping is not included in the approx. calories per square).