I don’t need much of an excuse to bake a brownie, and I’ve rather started to feel that I am not alone in this. They are, quite simply, the quickest route to a delectable dessert or anytime treat I know.
And these black forest brownies are particularly fabulous: softly studded with kirsch-soaked cherries, with a few toasted hazelnuts for crunch, and a little freshly chopped rosemary for bosky redolence.
I have long made a stack of brownies, each pronged with a cake candle, for birthdays, and I propose you pile these up, dust them with icing sugar and stud with birthday candles, to flicker in the festive spirit.
If you can’t find hazelnuts that are ready-toasted, toast them on a lipped baking sheet for about 10-15 minutes in a 160C fan/gas mark 4 oven, then tip them into a shallow bowl to cool while you get on with the brownie batter. And if you don’t have kirsch or would rather not use alcohol, then simply soak the dried cherries in orange juice.
The dried fruit, alcohol and rosemary don’t make these particularly child-friendly but why should they have all the fun?
Makes 16 brownies
dried cherries 150g
kirsch 75ml (or orange juice)
dark chocolate 200g (70% cocoa solids), preferably labelled “for cooking”
unsalted butter 200g
dark muscovado sugar 100g
caster sugar 225g
fine sea salt ¼ tsp
cocoa 25g
eggs 4 large, at room temperature
toasted hazelnuts 100g
plain flour 150g (or gluten-free plain flour)
rosemary needles 1 tsp, finely chopped
icing sugar for dusting
Heat the oven to 160C fan/gas mark 4. Line a 23cm square tin with baking parchment. Leave something heavy on it to keep it down while you make the brownies.
Put the dried cherries into the smallest saucepan you have pour over the kirsch (or orange juice) and bring to the boil, stirring frequently to make sure all the cherries get turned in the liquid. Once it comes to the boil, let it bubble for a minute, then take the pan off the heat, leaving the cherries to cool a little, and soak up the liqueur or juice.
Chop up the chocolate and cut the butter into slices to help it melt. Put these slices into a wide-ish saucepan – I use one of 22cm diameter – and melt over very low heat. Add the chopped chocolate, and when it is all but melted into the butter, take the pan off the heat, stir gently with a spatula, add the sugars, salt and cocoa, stir gently again, and take off the heat and leave to cool a little.
Crack your eggs into a jug, and whisk to combine. Put the hazelnuts into a bag, and bash with a rolling pin to break them up a bit. Rather satisfyingly, most of the hazelnuts spring apart in two perfect halves.
Gradually whisk the beaten eggs into the pan of melted chocolate and, when they’re incorporated into the batter, slowly whisk in the flour, until you can’t see it any more. Tip the steeped cherries, bashed hazelnuts and chopped rosemary into the pan, and fold to mix, then scrape into your lined tin.
Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes. When the brownies are cooked, the top will look a little dry, and the edges will be beginning to come away from the sides of the tin. A cake tester should come out with a few damp crumbs attached, but no raw batter. They will, however, be delectably gungy inside.
Leave to cool in their tin on a wire rack, even though they are gorgeous warm; they won’t hold their shape until they’re cold, though. Dust with icing sugar on serving. And if you put any leftovers (I know) in the fridge, you will be rewarded: fridge-cold, these brownies taste like the most glorious fudge.
From Cook, Eat, Repeat by Nigella Lawson (Chatto & Windus, £26)
