Myself and the OH travelled home for Christmas and it has been such a treat for us to be with our families again. The journey from Seattle to Ireland, was anything but a treat however. Noisy planes, packed airports and bad food! There is nothing worse than nasty plastic tasting plane food. Thankfully I made some delicious gooey chocolate brownies just before we flew which made it half way across the Atlantic. I had a few of these on the plane with a cup of tea and instantly felt better and full of happy chocolaty goodness. You see, these are special brownies because they contain a secret ingredient … delicious mincemeat. The same mincemeat that I made a few weeks ago, that was macerating in the fridge. This boozy mincemeat adds a real richness to the brownies and makes them totally irresistible.
I have been getting some great emails, tweets and photos of my recipes lately and wanted to say a big thanks to those for getting in touch. I had been having some issues with my comment section, but it is fixed now, so please feel free to comment. In an effort to make things easier for everyone, from now on, all my recipes will be in metric as well as those lovely American cups! Hope you all have a wonderful New Year. If you do have some mincemeat left over from the holidays, do give these a try…I promise you won’t regret it.
Ingredients
- 125g of butter / 9 tablespoons of butter
- 200g / 1 cup of soft brown sugar
- 125g / 5 oz of milk chocolate
- 50g / 1/2 a cup of all purpose flour / gluten free flour
- 1/4 teaspoon of baking powder
- 35g / 1/4 cup of cocoa
- 3 eggs, lightly beaten
- 100g / 1/3 cup of mincemeat – home-made or shop bought
- 1 tablespoon of whiskey
Method
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit/ 180 degrees Celsius. Grease a 9 inch square tin. Place the butter and the soft brown sugar in a large heavy bottomed saucepan over a medium heat. Stir together and heat slowly until all the sugar has dissolved. Place the chocolate in a glass bowl over a saucepan of boiling water, on a medium heat. Once the chocolate has melted, add it to the dissolved sugar and butter. Stir together until combined. Take off the heat and allow to cool for few minutes.
Sieve the flour, cocoa and baking powder into a large bowl. Next add the mincemeat, the cooled chocolate, beaten egg and the whiskey. Stir with a wooden spoon, until all mixed together. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and cook for 25-35 minutes. I like my brownies kind of gooey, so I leave mine in for just 25 minutes. If you prefer a firmer brownie, you can leave them in ten minutes longer. Once cooled, cut the brownies into squares and dust with icing sugar.
*I made these particular brownies using gluten free flour and they were utterly delicious.
