I wanted to make some brownies, and to make them have a fudgy texture rather than being too much like a cake. I also wanted to include some nuts. Then I recalled how much I enjoy fruit & nut chocolate, made by Cadbury’s in the UK. That is a milk chocolate with raisins and hazelnuts in. So I decided that my brownies would have those in, and I also decided to top them with half a Morello glace cherry as they have such a wonderful flavour that goes so well with chocolate too.
Brownies are very easy to make and don’t take much time either, though they do have to be cooled completely before removing from the pan and serving. For mine I decided to use a squares/bars pan that I have. This makes individual brownies, but the recipe works just as well in an 8inch/20cm square cake tin that has been greased and lined with parchment paper, for easy release.
My brownies turned out very well indeed, with a rich chocolate flavour, and nice and dense as I wanted. They were enhanced with the texture and flavour of the fruit and nuts, making these perfect brownies for me.
Ingredients:
- 150g(1 cup) plain flour
- 30g(1/4 cup)cocoa powder
- 115g(2/3 cup – 4 oz) dark chocolate chopped into pieces
- 285g(1 1/4 cups) unsalted butter, cut into cubes
- 200g(1 cup) caster or granulated sugar
- 150g(3/4 cup) soft light brown sugar
- 50g(1/3 cup) raisins
- 50g(1/2 cup) hazelnuts, roughly chopped
- 3 medium eggs(large in USA)
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 6 Morello glace cherries halved(optional) maybe more if using an 8 inch tin
Method:
- Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/350F.
- Grease a squares/bars pan or grease and line an 8 inch/20cm square cake tin.
- Melt the chocolate and the butter, together, in a bain-marie(double boiler) or in a microwave, and stir to ensure a nicely combined mixture.
- Add the sugars into the melted chocolate mixture and whisk to combine.
- Add the vanilla extract and mix to combine.
- Add the eggs, one at a time, and mix to combine.
- Add the flour and sift the cocoa powder on top of that.
- Whisk until just combined.
- Stir in the raisins and hazelnuts.
- Spoon the mixture evenly into the 12 holes of the squares/bars tin, or pour the mixture into a prepared 8 inch square cake tin.
- Place a glace cherry half on the top of each portion, or as you like in the square cake tin.
- Bake in the oven for 20-22 minutes for the individual squares or for 25-28 minutes for an 8 inch square cake tin.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before removing from the tin and serving.