Moist Chocolate Brownies

I had a fairly last minute invite to a friend's place (well we kind of knew we would see them over the weekend but no details had been confirmed) and wanted a quick and easy recipe that ticked all the boxes (tasty, cost effective, quick, simple), and this brownie recipe seemed to be the ideal solution.

Tasty - Heck yes!
Cost effective - Most definitely (I actually had all the ingredients at home already)
Quick - Yup.  About 15 minutes effort and 30 minutes baking time
Simple - Too easy. All ingredients in one pot, mixed. No mess, no fuss.

Ingredients

3/4 cup cocoa powder
3/4 cup butter
2 1/4 cups sugar
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup chopped pecans (or walnuts) - optional.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.
Grease a 9x13" pan.
Melt butter in a big enough saucepan over low heat, then stir in cocoa (all ingredients will be mixed in this pan, hence why it must be big enough)
Remove from heat and mix in sugar and vanilla then mix in eggs one at a time.
Stir in remaining ingredients then stir in nuts.
Pour into baking pan and bake for 30 minutes.
Cool completely, before cutting into squares.

Recipe taken from here 

Can you just see the soft gooey centre...

LOVE this sign. Seen hanging in my friend's kitchen...