Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Fig Brownies

This is a pretty simple and highly delicious recipe for brownies. The original recipe called for cashews but all I had were figs and, lemme tell you, it turned our very delicious.

Prepare:
-Mix 200g dark chocolate (broken up) with 175g unsalted butter in a bowl
-Melt in a microwave (medium heat for several minutes, stirring every now and then) or over a pot of boiling water and then leave aside to cool
-Whisk 2 eggs and 1 cup of sugar (brown makes for a moister brownie) for about 5 minutes until pale and fluffy-Add the chocolate butter mixture-Sift 1 cup flour and 1/3 cup of cocoa powder into the large bowl and mix well-Roughly chop 100g of dark chocolate and a handful of dried figs-Fold into the mix
Cook:
-Preheat oven to 160C/320F
-Pour into a shallow brownie tin, lined with baking paper
-Bake for about 30-35 minutes. Top should be firm but not too hard, as these will set when left to cool
-Enjoy with some fresh fruit or an icing

Tips:
-These are pretty quick to make and very delicious. You can use a sour-cream based icing but I find these sweet enough on their own to not need it
-You could use many different things instead of the fig: pistachios, cashews, almonds, dates, apricots, dried cranberries, etc.