Prune in Chocolate brownies

The sweet Prune in Chocolate series gets another delicious addition today: brownies. You may already know my Prune in Chocolate cheesecake, mazurek and muffins with the same flavour combination. In these brownies, chocolate naturally takes centre stage, creating a perfect pairing with Californian prunes. They taste just like chocolate pralines!

Ingredients for the Prune in Chocolate brownies:

• 180 g butter
• 100 g dark chocolate (70%), chopped
• 150 g dark chocolate (50%), chopped
• 3 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 250 g caster sugar
• 100 g plain flour
• ¼ tsp baking powder
• a pinch of salt
• 150 g Californian prunes, cut into pieces

All ingredients should be at room temperature.

Melt the butter in a saucepan and remove from the heat. Add the chopped dark chocolate to the hot butter, leave for 2 minutes, then stir until smooth. Allow the chocolate mixture to cool (or leave it slightly warm, but NOT HOT); it should remain liquid.

Lightly whisk the eggs with a balloon whisk (do not whip). Add the vanilla extract and sugar and whisk for a little while, until thoroughly combined. Add the cooled chocolate mixture and stir with a balloon whisk. Sift the flour and baking powder directly into the chocolate mixture, add the salt and stir just until combined. Fold in the pieces of prune.

Pour the batter into a 28 × 18 cm baking tin (or a 23 cm square tin), greased with butter and lined with baking paper.

Bake the Prune in Chocolate brownies at 160°C fan or 180°C conventional for about 30–33 minutes. The brownies will rise slightly and may crack around the edges or develop a wrinkled surface. A skewer inserted into the centre may come out moist, but it should not have any traces of raw batter on it. Generally, however, brownies are not tested with a skewer, as this is not a particularly reliable way of judging whether they are done.

Leave the brownies to cool, then cut into squares. Place a prune on top of each brownie, first dipping its underside in the melted additional chocolate so that it sticks to the brownie. Use the remaining melted chocolate to decorate the brownie squares.

For decoration:

• 50 g dark chocolate (50%), chopped
• 12 Californian prunes (or more), for decoration

Enjoy!