Black Forest Brownies

Black Forest Brownies

Ingredients

150g (1 cup) dried cherries

75ml 5 tbsp.) orange juice or kirsch

200g (1 stick plus 6 tbsp.) unsalted butter

200g dark cooking chocolate

100g dark muscovado sugar

180g caster sugar

25g (3½ tbsp.) cocoa powder

4 large eggs, at room temperature

3/4 Cup toasted hazelnuts

1 sprig of fresh rosemary

150g (1 heaping cup) plain flour

a pinch of salt

icing sugar, for dusting

Recipe

Place the cherries in a small saucepan, add the orange juice or kirsch and bring to the boil. Simmer for a minute, stir to coat the cherries in the liquid and leave to cool.

Preheat the oven to 350F. Line a square brownie pan (23 x 23cm) with parchment.

Melt the butter over low heat in a large saucepan. Chop the chocolate roughly. When the butter’s melted, add the chocolate and keep over low heat until it melts too. Stir, add the sugars and cocoa powder and whisk to combine. Set aside to cool so it’s only just warm to touch.

Break the eggs into a bowl and beat lightly.

Strip the needles off the rosemary sprig and chop very finely, almost into powder (you can actually grind them in a spice or coffee grinder but it will work with a larger quantity than one sprig so reserve the rest of the rosemary powder for other dishes).

When the chocolate mix has cooled, gradually whisk in the eggs. Add the flour, salt and rosemary and whisk to incorporate the flour. Fold in the steeped cherries.

Pour the batter into the prepared tin and transfer to the oven. Bake for 25-30 minutes until the top surface is shiny, lightly cracked and the brownie slightly pulls away from the sides. Inserted skewer should show only a few crumbs sticking to it.

Cool the brownie in the pan. Dust with icing sugar, cut into squares and serve.