Chocolate Brownies for Fair Trade Fortnight

The feelgood factor in these brownies comes from the fact that they are made with fairly traded cocoa as much as from the chocolate itself.

This year Fair Trade Fortnight falls between 23rd Feb and 8th March. We always buy fair trade if possible, looking for foods with the fair trade logo or UTZ classification. Nowadays you can get fair trade, bananas, roses, coffee, tea, sugar, and chocolate in almost every supermarket, from Aldi to Waitrose. But you may not  know that you can now also get a lot more fairly traded products such as: gold, cotton and quinoa, plus products made with fair trade ingredients including footballs, beer and cola (Ubuntu Cola). So what's the benefit in buying fair trade? Simply put, it enables the people who actually produce the stuff, the farmers and workers, to get a fair price for their product, enabling better wages and a better life for them and their families. The consumer pays a little more to make this happen, but hey, it's worth it to help move towards a more just world. Never underestimate the power of the consumer to change things: to me, it makes sense that if I'm avoiding animal exploitation with my food choices, as far as possible, I should also try to avoid exploiting humans too.

My daughter Radha made some delicious chocolate brownies the other day, using fair trade chocolate- perfect for celebrating your implication in creating a fairer world for all! They are so good that this is likely to become my go-to brownie recipe from now on. Here it is, in her words...

Makes about 10 small brownies:
5 tabs sunflower oil (extra for greasing)
200g fair trade vegan dark chocolate
170g white self raising flour
3 heaped tabs Bournville cocoa (it's fair trade)
180g soft light brown sugar (can also be fair trade)
a pinch of seasalt
1 capful natural vanilla essence
1 capful natural almond essence
230ml unsweetened soya milk

• Preheat oven to 180C (fan) or roughly 200C.
• Grease tin with oil and line with greaseproof paper.
• Melt dark chocolate. Allow to cool.
• While it cools, sieve flour and cocoa powder into a large bowl, Stir in sugar and salt.
• Stir in oil, soya milk, melted chocolate and essences until they are all combined.
• Pour the mixture into the prepared tin.
• Bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes. Allow to cool slightly before cutting.

Here are just some of the labels to look for when you're shopping:

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