Serves
Serves 2-4
If you are looking for a festive bake, these decadent chocolate brownies from Seasoned Cookery School are perfect for a Christmas treat. Taking inspiration from Will Torrent’s Chocolate Patisserie course, the Seasoned team have come up with these little goodies – perfect as a festive dessert, an afternoon tea or even left out for Santa.
Ingredients
Base
- 200g butter
- 200g dark chocolate
- 250g caster sugar
- 3 eggs
- 110g Plain flour
- Zest of 2 oranges
- 2 tablespoons of good quality mincemeat
Middle Layer
- 150g butter
- 250g icing sugar
- Zest and Juice of 1 orange
Topping
- 150g dark chocolate
- 20ml vegetable oil
- Topping – Candid orange peel
Method
Preheat the oven to 170 degrees C and grease and line a 20 x 30cm tin or equivalent
To make the base
- Melt the chocolate – either slowly in a microwave or over a ban marie. Meanwhile cream the butter and the sugar until pale (it won’t be as light and fluffy as a cake batter, but it will be pale and smooth). Add the 3 eggs, one by one, mixing well in-between.
- Stir in the melted chocolate then fold in the flour and the orange zest.
- Spread the mixture in the pan, dot tiny amounts of mincemeat all over the mixture so you get little pockets of delicious mincemeat and bake for 25-30 minutes until just cooked.
To make the middle layer
- Combine the softened butter and the icing sugar together with a hand mixer / stand mixer. Blend until pale & smooth, adding just enough orange juice and zest to give a lovely taste.
- When the brownie is cool, spread the softened icing mix all over the brownie base in a thin, but even layer. The brownie must be cool and the buttercream must be soft to make this easy.
To make the topping
- Melt the chocolate and the oil in a pan until smooth and glossy. When the buttercream layer is set, flood the top with the chocolate glaze and leave in a cool room to set.
- When set, get a ruler, a sharp knife & a deep jug of very hot water and a tea towel. Mark out equal measures and cut into beautiful squares / rectangles, cleaning the knife in between each cut. Cut down, rather than dragging through & you will get a lovely result.
- Store in an airtight tin for 1-2 days before enjoying. These also freeze well.