Mint chocolate and pecan brownies

This is a recipe and not a rant. Really.

Sunday evenings can turn sad and sorrowful with the prospect of beginning another working week in just a few hours starting to loom alarmingly large. Best solution to perennial problem? Find an easy, indulgent snack recipe and address yourself to it. Works for me, everytime.

So here's what you need for the P&MC Brownies
Atta (regular, whole wheat flour): 175 g
Sugar (powder it in your grinder): 175 g
Cocoa powder: 100 g
White, unsalted butter (Makkhan): 175 g
Large eggs: 3
Vanilla essence: 2 spoons
Baking powder: 2 teaspoons
Peppermint Liquer (I used Bols)
Microwave-Convection Oven: 1
Any old 1 litre vol baking pan or tray (and if you have a brownies tray you are way cooler than I am)

Preheat oven to 170 deg C.

Add baking powder to atta and mix them thoroughly. Easy way- sieve them together a couple of times. Melt butter over low heat. Add cocoa powder, then sugar and vanilla essence until the whole thing comes together into a viscous but lump-free mix. Turn heat off. Whisk up eggs and add them to mix and combine quickly to prevent the egg cooking. Now ladle in the atta/baking powder mix in large ladle-fulls ensuring no lumps form. Toss in a large fistful of chopped pecans (walnuts work just fine too) and then toss in a generous pour of the mint liquer. Combine well and pour into buttered baking tray. Stop oven preheat cycle and switch to Convection 170 C+ Microwave cycle for 15 minutes. In a regular convection oven it may take 20 minutes. Start the baking. After 10 minutes, check by inserting fork into centre of pan. If it comes out clean you are probably done but leaving it in for a couple minutes AFTER it comes out clean will give a slightly crunchy crust.

Cool. Cut up (or don't bother, go straight for the whole lallapaloosa). And if you have a nice Burgundy waiting for pleasant company this would be a good time to open and pour a nice glassful.

Suddenly, the morning to follow won't look so forbidding after all!