Mince Pie Brownies

by Barry Lewis

Prep time
10 mins
Bake time
30 mins
Difficulty
Easy

Ingredients

200g unsalted butter

200g high-quality dark chocolate

60g cocoa powder

4 large eggs

320g golden caster sugar

9 mince pies

icing sugar to dust

Ok this little medley sounds a bit strange right? A festive favourite wedged inside a gooey chocolate bake…. well, that’s exactly what it is, these mince pie brownies are insanely good, have minimal ingredients and are just really fun to make. Not just for Christmas either, why not stick an apple pie inside instead of a mince pie?! nice.

So this recipe originates here from the amazing BBC good food. I was sent a few different variations of brownie mince pies some had brownies inside pastry cases but this stood out for me, I liked the fact they were hidden, so you can surprise people! Anyhow… i’ve tweaked the recipe a bit to the original so here’s my thoughts / steps…

First up in a microwave proof bowl add the butter and chocolate – make sure the butter is chopped into small chunks and the chocolate is bashed up a bit. Microwave on 30 second blasts, then stir and repeat in the microwave on 30 second blasts until it is nice and smooth… about 90 seconds worked for me, letting the residual heat of the butter melt the chocolate, this looks really nice, do not drink it! Leave to one side.

Add the eggs and sugar into a large mixing bowl and using an electric whisk whip up together. Do this for a good 8-10 minutes, you will notice the mixture thicken by doing so. Pour the cooled chocolate butter mixture in to the whipped egg mixture and using a spatula fold through until a nice rice runny chocolate  batter is formed.

Sieve in the flour and the cocoa powder then fold through again with a sieve, this will thicken the batter.

Now I used a 23cm square tin hence the increased ingredients to the original recipe (that called for a 20cm one), line the tin with baking parchment and add a small amount of brownie batter to the base just to cover it. Then place the mince pies into the tin evenly spread out and add the batter on top, making sure to fill in any gaps and using it all up smoothing the top of the tin once done, hopefully, covering the mince pies!

Bake in an oven pre-heated to 180c/160c fan or equivalent for 30 minutes, I think the recipe calls for 25 but I would say an extra five will really help, they’ll still be gooey, don’t worry! Remove from the oven, give it a shake, if it doesn’t wobble they are done, if it does, bake for another 5 mins or until the wobbles have gone. The top of the baked brownie should be a bit flaky like chocolate paper, leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then lift out onto a wire rack to cool to room temperature.

Slice up and dust with icing sugar, deliciousness!