CHOCOLATE BROWNIES WITH RASPBERRIES
By Sue Lawrence
makes 16
350g dark chocolate (55 -
60% cocoa solids)
250g unsalted butter
3 large free-range eggs
250g dark muscovado sugar
(see note)
100g plain flour, sifted
1 tsp baking powder
Pinch salt
175g fresh raspberries
Preheat the oven to 170ºC.
Butter a 23cm square cake
tin.
Melt the chocolate and
butter together then cool slightly.
Whisk the eggs until
thick, then gradually add the sugar and beat until glossy.
Beat in the melted chocolate
mixture.
Gently fold in the
combined flour, baking powder and salt.
Pour just over half the
mixture into the prepared cake tin.
Scatter over the
raspberries, then cover with the remaining mixture.
Bake in the preheated
oven for about 40 minutes or until the surface is set. It will be cooked when a skewer inserted
into the middle comes out with just a little mixture adhering.
Remove the cake tin from
the oven to a wire rack, and allow it to rest for about 20 minutes.
Cut the cake into squares
and remove them from the tin when cold (it is tempting to remove them when they
are still warm but they are too fragile to decant unless cold).
Sue’s Notes:
Billington’s is a brand of dark muscovado sugar generally available from good
delicatessens.
These dark chocolate brownies are all-year-round family
staples in my house. Hardly a week goes
by without my rustling up a batch. But
the combination of chocolate and raspberries is sublime and during the
raspberry season, when I add berries to the brownies, they are even more
scrumptious. I have tried making them
with frozen fruit in winter but the mixture is rather too moist: it still
tastes good, but is impossible to lift out of the tin.
I go to the West Craigie fruit farm near Edinburgh during
the strawberry and raspberry season, but if I am visiting relatives in Dundee,
I stop off at one of the fruit farms in the Carse of Gowrie between Dundee and
Perth – both this area and further north around Blairgowrie are home to the
best raspberries in the world.