“MY BODY needs it.” It is easy to think, when the brain tells the body it desperately needs chocolate, salty potato crisps or another glass of red wine, that the craving is based on a nutritional need, and that you are cleverly making up for some vitamin or mineral deficit. Sadly, this claim has been debunked by recent research at the Monell Chemical Senses Centre in Philadelphia, as reported by Newsday, a New York newspaper.
In the study, a group of healthy young adults was put on a liquid diet that provided each of them with plenty of calories and all essential vitamins and minerals. The participants still craved certain foods, however, suggesting that nutritional deficits are not necessary for cravings.
So we don’t crave chocolate brownies for their magnesium, but because our bodies are sending messages of desire to the brain, seeking to boost the brain’s production of endorphins.
It is a psychological need rather than a nutritional one, which may help to explain why so few of us wake up in the middle of the night craving broccoli.
Apparently, we generally crave food with at least three calories per gram, and chocolate is usually in the top five food cravings. We may think that we are self-medicating, but we are merely self-indulging.
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So if we are going to indulge ourselves this Bank Holiday weekend, let it be with sheer quality: intensely dark, bitter chocolate transformed into gooey brownies — with added espresso coffee, for those of who crave coffee as well as chocolate.
CHOCOLATE ESPRESSO BROWNIES
Prep: 30 mins
Cook: 30 mins
Serves 6
200g butter
200g bitter dark chocolate, chopped
4 eggs
200g caster sugar
2 tbsp espresso or very strong black coffee
200g plain flour, sifted
pinch of salt
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METHOD
Heat the oven to 180C/Gas 4. Line a 25cm x 20cm baking pan or roasting tray with buttered foil or greaseproof paper.
In a heatproof bowl set over a pot of gently simmering water, melt the chocolate and butter, stirring until smooth. Remove from the heat and half-cool. In a large bowl, beat the eggs and sugar with a hand-held electric mixer until pale. Beat in the coffee and then the half-cooled chocolate mixture. Fold in the sifted flour and salt.
Pour the batter into the pan and bake for 20 to 25 minutes. It should be crusty on top, but still a bit gooey inside. Leave to cool in the pan.
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Serve warm as a pudding, or cut into smaller squares to have with coffee.
jill.dupleix@thetimes.co.uk
TIMESONLINE
www.timesonline.co.uk/foodandwine — for previous recipes from T2