the christmas collection 2012 - xmas brownies

the christmas collection 2012 - xmas brownies

• 20 Dec 2012

When I was making the list for this year's Christmas Collection I thought it should be a mix of old favourites with some new recipes. The old favourites were easy to choose but the new recipes were not so easy. Should I make cranberry and pistachio meringues or perhaps some biscotti?



Browsing through the internet I stumbled upon a few recipes for Fruit Mince brownies and thought they sounded interesting. I looked through the cupboard and I had all the ingredients on the shelves, so I decided to give them a try. I found a recipe in an old Delicious magazine and used that as the inspiration to create some Xmas brownies.



These brownies were the definite stand-outs for the year - moist, dense and intensely chocolately with the occasional unexpected flavour burst from the fruit mince. Any fruit mince will do. I just use the bottled kind because I confess I actually prefer the flavour of my doctored version to the home made variety. You can find it here in the mince pie recipe from the 2011 Christmas Collection.

Here's the brownie recipe for you.
Xmas Brownies printable recipe
125 grams (4 oz) unsalted butter, roughly chopped
180 grams (6 oz) dark chocolate, roughly chopped
½ cup plain flour
½ teaspoon mixed spice
1½ tablespoons cocoa powder
¾ cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
¼ cup fruit mince
¾ cup toasted walnuts or pecans chopped into large pieces
Extra cocoa for dusting

Method
Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF. Grease and line a 20 cm (8 inch) square tin with paper.

Sift the flour, mixed spice and cocoa together. Melt the butter and the chocolate together in a medium sized bowl over simmering water or in the microwave. Allow to cool a little before stirring in the sugar and the beaten eggs. Mix in the flour and cocoa mixture, the fruit mince and the nuts and stir until well combined.

Spoon the mixture into the prepared 20 cm (8 inch) square tin. Bake at 180ºC/350ºF for 30 minutes, or until just cooked when tested with a skewer.The brownie crumb should come out a bit damp.

Allow the brownies to cool in the tin, before turning out and removing the paper. Dust with extra cocoa before cutting into squares. Makes 9 large or 16 small brownies.



I’m not a fan of overly sweet food but if you are, you may feel the need to bump up the sugar content in these brownies.

I'll be back tomorrow with the final piece from the 2012 Christmas Collection.

See you then,

Jillian