Christmas Baking, Day 4🎄

Baking Lovers,

Today’s instalment of the 12 days of Christmas Baking is a delicious mix of two favourite sweet treats; mince pies and brownies! These sticky, chocolatey brownies are sure to be a winner in many people’s books, making them great to serve for Christmas dessert with yummy ice cream should people not want to eat the Christmas pud’. These are a Christmassy take on a classic that can be a great alternative to Christmas pudding, or Christmas cake, as it incorporates a lot of festive elements. Perfect for kids and big kids at heart!

For this recipe, I recommend using the Wenzel’s Luxury Mince Pies; you’ll need to buy two boxes but that way you’ll also be in for a chance of winning our Golden Ticket! Imagine winning £250 for making brownies… good deal if you ask me! You could also jazz them up even more and choose some other additions to put into your brownies. Chocolate chips, other dried fruits, or maybe extra rum? Hmm that would be a great addition, just don’t give them to the kids!

Now, get going and bake these delicious brownies! (Or not. Completely up to you… but I would.)

What you’ll need to make these brownies…

• 185g unsalted butter, cubed
• 185g high-quality dark chocolate 80%, chopped
• 85g plain flour
• 40g cocoa powder (plus extra for dusting the tin)
• 3 large eggs
• 275g golden caster sugar
• 6 mince pies or 9-12 mini mince pies
• icing sugar, for dusting

How to make the best Christmas brownies EVER…

• Melt the butter and chocolate in a medium bowl, either in a microwave –heat in 20-second blasts, careful not to burn the chocolate; this will make it grainy – or by putting the bowl over a pan of simmering water and stirring occasionally. Once melted, leave the mixture to cool. Similar to making the chocolate truffle ganache mixture, you don’t want the chocolate and butter to heat up too much.
• Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Butter the sides of a of a shallow 20cm square tin and coat the sides with cocoa powder. Line the base with grease-proof baking parchment.
• Sieve the flour and cocoa powder into a large enough bowl to hold all of the ingredients.
• Whisk the eggs and sugar until thick and creamy, or when the mixture runs off the beater and leaves a trail for a second or two. It should not be too runny or too think.
• Add in the cooled chocolate mixture, then fold together with a spatula, moving the bowl round until the mixture is a marbled dark brown. Be gentle so you don’t knock out all of the air.
• Sift in the cocoa and flour mixture and continue gently folding. The mixture will eventually look fudgy. Stop just before you feel you should, as you don’t want to over-mix it.
• Spoon a little mixture into the prepared tin so that it is around 2cm thick, then add the mince pies, leaving them whole. Pour over the rest of the mixture, gently pushing it between the mince pies. Make sure the top is level, and covers all of the pies, to ensure an even bake.
• Put in the pre-heated oven for about 25 mins. If the brownie mixture is very wobbly in the middle, it’s not quite done, so bake for another 5 -10 mins, or until the top has a shiny crust, sides are just beginning to come away from the tin and the centre is less wobbly. If you want sticky brownies, the centre should still be slightly soft.
• Take out of the oven and leave to cool in the tin before attempting to remove.
• Once completely cool, remove from the tin ad put onto a wire rack. Dust with icing sugar and cocoa powder. Cut the brownies into 16 even squares, or less if you want bigger brownies for desserts.

 

You can serve these mice-pie chocolate treats warm with your choice of ice cream (rum and raisin or vanilla would be great partners), or just on their own as a snack with a tea or coffee! Enjoy!

Merry-almost-Christmas!

Wenzel’s xo

🎄

Recipe adapted from:

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/mince-pie-brownies