Tuesday Treat

Menu Mistress

Chocolate, Sour Cherry & Hazelnut Brownies

These are by no means your ‘bog-standard’ brownie – the sour cherries take them to an altogether higher level. They’re seriously good! The recipe is from Anna Hedworth’s wonderful cookbook, Service. You can serve them at room temperature, or they’re also delicious cold and fudgy from the fridge.

*You will need a 20x30cm baking tray lined with baking paper

360g dark chocolate (I use Lindt Excellence 70% Cocoa Dark Chocolate), snapped into small pieces

200g salted butter

3 eggs

300g caster sugar

65g plain flour (gluten-free if required)

60g hazelnuts

60g sour cherries, stoned and chopped

Sea salt flakes

  1. First of all, lay the hazelnuts on a baking tray and place in a preheated oven, 200’c fan, for 5 minutes. Then immediately wrap in a clean tea towel and allow to steam for a minute or two, then vigorously rub in the towel to remove their skin. Discard the skins and chop the nuts. Set aside.
  2. Weigh off 60g of the chocolate pieces, roughly chop and set aside.
  3. Gently melt the remaining chocolate with the butter in a heavy-bottomed pan over a very low heat – stir frequently until melted. Remove from heat and allow to cool for a couple of minutes
  4. Meanwhile, whisk together the eggs and sugar in a large bowl. Then fold in the chocolate mixture followed by the flour, a pinch of salt, the chopped hazelnuts, cherries and reserved chocolate pieces.
  5. Pour the brownie mixture into the lined tray and scatter the sea salt flakes over the top. Bake in a preheated oven, 170’c fan, for 35minutes. The top will have cracked, and it should still have a slight wobble. Leave to cool in the tin before cutting into 12 slices. Serve at room temperature or chilled from the fridge.
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Published by Menu Mistress

Cooking has always been something I've enjoyed, I have an extensive collection of cookbooks, some are well thumbed whilst others collect dust on the shelves; I can’t bear to get rid of any cook book, just in case one day I might use it for that one obscure recipe - light on a rainy day! I enjoy eating out and discovering new flavours, whether it’s just a local haunt or a ‘dress up’ to dinner restaurant - food is my hobby! In my opinion food is the one of the most important pieces of knowledge you need to know about any culture in order to really understand it, so when we go away, it’s not the local sights that I’m googling but the best place to eat! I'm not one of those fortunate cooks who can throw something together by looking at the contents of their fridge, I need a plan to work with, then I organise my fridge around the recipe. I am however a very organised person, you might even call me a control freak! I love the orderly fashion of a recipe, I find it soothing to have a plan in front of me, so the thought of trawling through my recipe books and trying new recipes is my idea of a perfect afternoon. But I realise that this is not everyones idea of fun, hence the birth of this blog. This blog is essentially for people who adore food but don’t have the time, patience or energy to search through cook books to find that winning recipe – that’s the job of Menu Mistress!

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