These are the quickest stand-in for brownies using a chocolate muffin premix. The cocoa reacted to the quark I subbed in, giving the final bake a beet-red cast.

  • 500g chocolate muffin premix
  • 300g Quark (or use thick Greek yoghurt)
  • 1 large egg
  • 200ml water
  • 2 tsps espresso powder
  • 1/2 cup choc chips
  • 1 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
Stir all the ingredients together in a medium-sized bowl until well combined.
Spoon into a prepared sheet cake pan (mine measured 21x30cm).
Bake for 15 to 20 minutes and remove when the center is still a little under done. You want a cake that’s cooked about 4/5ths of the way through.
Cool in the pan before removing to slice into squares.

These don’t have the fudgey toothsomeness of a traditional brownie, but one cakey cube is sufficiently satisfying.