By Keighley’s Mike Armstrong, an award-winning master baker with a big passion for baking...

AUTUMN is in the air – it's time to turn on the oven and do some baking.

I love autumn; cool crisp mornings and warm sunny afternoons.

Halloween is just around the corner, and the half-term holidays beckon.

Strictly Come Dancing and the football season have already started, we put our gardens to bed and plant out our spring bulbs, we wear comfy sweaters and watch scary movies.

While it's always hard watching summer come to an end, I think most people can agree it's a great time of the year.

Autumn is also a great time to share homemade treats, to express love and appreciation to family and friends.

We all love a cup of coffee, but did you know coffee was once a little-known delicacy used to aid religious rituals? But once it had begun its global expansion, it became an unstoppable force. Its rich dark liquid now flows across the world and greases the wheels of our economies. It's one of the most traded commodities and there are fears that with the demand, we may one day run dry.

No I'm not talking oil, but coffee – two billion cups of coffee are drunk every day and for many, working life would feel impossible without it.

Even China, the tea-drinking nation, is now seduced by coffee charms.

The Italians created the theatre, romance, art and magic of experiencing espresso, but whether the high-street coffee shops have succeeded in recreating the experience is of course a matter of debate.

Coffee can be more than a simple caffeine kick, and most people see it as a way of connecting to others around them. We may be obsessed with coffee, but it can give us a boost in energy, and it provides us with physical health benefits, but these aren't the real reasons we drink it. We take pictures of it with our smartphones – well, what else are you supposed to do with that other free hand? Look at me, I'm wild, I drink coffee! So if you are wild and have a smartphone and want some brownie points, espresso yourself another way and bake some mocha brownies this weekend!

RECIPE

MOCHA AND WALNUT BROWNIES

Ingredients:

120g/4oz butter, diced

200g bar of good-quality plain chocolate, broken into pieces

2 tablespoons instant coffee granules

4 eggs

250g/9oz caster sugar

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

100g/3 1/2oz plain flour

150g/5oz walnuts or pecans, roughly chopped

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan/Gas Mark 4 and line a 20cm/8’’ square tin with baking parchment.

2. Place the butter and chocolate in a heatproof bowl and set over a pan of simmering water until melted. Set aside to cool.

3. Place the coffee in a small bowl and add 2 tablespoons of boiling water, stir to dissolve, then mix into the cool chocolate mixture.

4. Using a whisk, beat together the eggs and sugar until well combined, and beat in the coffee mixture.

5. Mix the cocoa powder and flour together, then fold into the coffee mixture and gently stir.

6. Mix in the walnuts and pour into the tin and bake for 25 minutes until just set but still squidgy in the centre. Leave to cool and cut into perfect squares.