Dark Chocolate and Raspberry Brownies

In the past I made all my brownies out of real, dark chocolate. But whenever I went to my baking drawer all I could ever find was a wrapper and the meagre remains of what was once a chocolate block.

Given I was adamant I had bought chocolate blocks with the shopping that week, and previous week, and the week before that, and the week before that, it was a mystery as to why they weren’t there. I’m pretty sure baby George, at 13 months, isn’t able to open the very heavy drawer and although my obese cat is a likely candidate to be stealing chocolate the fact he doesn’t have opposable thumbs is a pretty good alibi. The only remaining culprit… my husband (who insistently claims he hates chocolate). The reality is I have never met a man that loves chocolate so much. He claims that it is in his DNA, all of his family loves it too. What a wonderful family to marry into! They all have excellent taste and only eat the dark stuff, which is great, but not when I go to make brownies.

I have always thought that you needed real, dark, 70% plus chocolate to make rich brownies but as it turns out you don’t. This brownie recipe has a gooey and rich chocolaty centre and a crispy outer just like you anticipate with a good brownie but just uses cocoa. This is great if you don’t have any chocolate on hand like me and is great if you have unexpected guests because you can whip these up out of ingredients from Your Little Larder. Just because I always have the remnants of what was once a block of dark chocolate, these brownies also have chunks of chocolate melted on top. White or milk chocolate would also do nicely. Raspberries and chocolate are a match made in heaven but it doesn’t matter if you don’t have these or any chocolate, they are still great without them.

To celebrate my first blog post I may just have two pieces (or maybe more, don’t judge)!

xo Kate

If you make this, I would love to see! Tag your photo with #mylittlelarder on Instagram or Facebook.

If you’re looking for some other delicious baking from My Little Larder then you may like:

• Chocolate and Beetroot Cake
• Plum and Pistachio Cake
• Cranberry and Almond ANZAC Biscuits

Print

Dark Chocolate and Raspberry Brownies

The best ever dark chocolate brownies with a hint of raspberry.

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes

Total Time 35 minutes

Servings 16

Ingredients

• 150 g 5.2oz butter
• 1 1/4 cups 275g/9.7oz sugar
• 3/4 cup 75g/2.6oz cocoa
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup 75g/2.6oz flour
• 75 g 2.6oz dark chocolate, chopped into chards
• 1/4 cup freeze dried raspberries

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 160 C (325 F) bake (see note 1). Grease and line a 20cm square cake tin.
2. Place butter, sugar, cocoa and vanilla is a large saucepan. Stir over low heat until butter is melted. The mixture will look slightly grainy but this won’t matter once you add the other ingredients. Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly.
3. Add the eggs and whisk until combined. Sift in the flour and stir until the mixture is smooth and velvety (about 30 sec).
4. Pour into the prepared cake tin and sprinkle over chocolate chunks. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a skewer comes out almost clean. To ensure your brownies have a fudge-y truffle-like centre do not overcook.
5. While the chocolate is still melted sprinkle over the freeze dried raspberries (see note 2), crushing some of them in your hand as you do.
6. Cool in the tin then slice into 16 pieces.

Recipe Notes

I find that cakes cook more evenly when using bake versus fan bake. If you only have the option of fan bake ensure you reduce the temperature by 20 C.
Freeze dried raspberries are available from most specialty grocers or online. If you can’t find these you can always sprinkle over fresh raspberries before baking.