Ingredients

400g dark chocolate, broken into chunks

25g cocoa powder

250g golden caster sugar

250g butter, plus extra for greasing the tin

1 tbsp ground ginger

140g ground almonds

6 large eggs, separated

For the icing

100g butter, chopped

50g dark chocolate, broken into chunks

200g icing sugar, sifted

2 tbsp ground ginger

A few chunks of crystallised ginger, cut into small chunks

Method

1. Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Grease a 20 x 30cm cake tin, and line the base and sides with baking parchment. Melt the chocolate, cocoa, sugar and butter together in a saucepan over a very low heat. Once the chocolate and butter have melted and sugar dissolved, remove from the heat and stir in the ginger and almonds, followed by the egg yolks, one at a time

2. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks. Using a metal spoon, stir a couple of spoonfuls of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture to loosen before very gently folding in the rest.

3. Gently scrape into the tin. Bake for 30-35 mins until the top looks set and the centre doesn’t wobble too much. Sit the cake tin on a wire rack and leave to cool completely.

4. Once cool, make the icing. Put the butter, chocolate, cocoa, icing sugar, ground ginger and 4 tbsp water in a pan. Gently heat, stirring, until you have a smooth icing. Pour over the cake (still in its tin), leave for 1-2 mins to cool slightly, then scatter over the ginger. Cool completely (you can also store in the fridge if you bring out to room temperature about 20 mins before serving) before cutting into bars.

The photos don’t do these chocolate gingerbread brownies with fudgy icing much justice! Needless to say, they weren’t around for long.

This post is part of my photos for #ColourMyEveryDay – an Instagram photo challenge with @adventuresandteaparties. Find out more about it in my previous post, where I also shared some lovely autumnal recipes. What new recipes have you been making recently?

Post updated 12th February 2020.

The post Chocolate gingerbread brownies with fudgy icing appeared first on Hello! Hooray!.

Easter is so late this year! I’m so ready for a holiday and looking forward to having some family time together. 

But it wouldn’t be Easter without a little treat or two, and this year I found this simple and delicious recipe for Mini Egg rocky road, which really is a treat! You can make it with or without the fruit, depending on your taste. It’s super easy to make so will be perfect if you need a last-minute Easter treat!

This recipe is originally from BBC Good Food online.

Ingredients

225g dark chocolate, broken into pieces

100g unsalted butter, cubed

2 tbsp cocoa powder

2 tbsp golden syrup

100g rich tea biscuits

50g mini marshmallows (chop up larger ones if you can’t find these)

50g dried cranberries

200g chocolate mini eggs

Method

1. Line a 20 x 30cm traybake tin with 2 sheets of cling film (in a criss-cross pattern). Put the chocolate and butter in a large bowl set over a saucepan of gently simmering water, and melt until smooth and glossy.

2. Remove from the heat and add the cocoa powder and golden syrup. Mix together until fully combined and leave to cool at room temperature for about 15 mins.

3. Put the biscuits in a freezer bag and use a rolling pin to bash them, leaving some pieces chunkier than others. Stir into the cooled chocolate with the marshmallows, cranberries and 150g of the mini eggs.

4. Pour the mix into the tin and press down with the back of a spoon until even. Scatter over the remaining mini eggs, pressing them in a little, and leave to set in the fridge for 1 hr.

5. Remove from the tin and cut into bars to serve. Will keep for up to 1 week in an airtight container – if you can make them last that long!

The post Mini Egg rocky road appeared first on Hello! Hooray!.

Ingredients

200g dark chocolate, roughly chopped
175g unsalted butter
325g caster sugar
130g plain flour
3 eggs
Icing sugar for dusting

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 170C/325F/Gas 3. Boil the kettle and line the tin.

2. Put the chocolate and butter into a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water (use the boiling water from the kettle to make this quicker). Don’t let the base of the bowl touch the water, and leave until melted and smooth.

3. Remove from the heat. Add the sugar and stir really well until incorporated. Add the flour and then stir really well.

4. Add the eggs (all in one go – not like a cake!) and mix until thick and smooth. (It might seem like it will never mix, but keep going!)

5. Spoon the mixture into the prepared baking tray and bake in the oven for about 30-35 minutes, or until flaky on the top but still soft in the centre. Be careful not to overcook otherwise the edges will become hard and crunchy.

6. Leave to cool completely before slicing and dusting with icing sugar. As you can see, this isn’t my strong point – I end up with loads or hardly any! The book says this make about 12, but if you use good quality chocolate they will be really rich, so I cut them into 18 pieces.

7. Enjoy your brownies with a cuppa

The post The Hummingbird Bakery Traditional Brownie appeared first on Hello! Hooray!.