With Christmas drawing close I’ve been happily experimenting with seasonal ingredients. One in particular has attracted my attention: lovely, dense and delightful Christmas pudding. You may have tried my fantastic Christmas Pudding Baked Cheesecake. Here’s the link: https://retiredblokeonfoodnstuff.com/christmas-pudding-baked-cheesecake/
Having made that recently, I still had half a pudding in the fridge, so this is what I did with it.
Preparation time: 10 minutes the night before baking. On the day 15 – 20 minutes
Cooking time: 35 – 45 minutes + cooling
Makes: 12 – 16 pieces, depending how big you want them
Level: Easy
Cooking vessel: 20cm/8” square tin, ideally loose bottomed
Ingredients
- 125g/4.5oz – 150g/5.5oz dried fruit (choose from, or mix together, raisins, sultanas, currants, chopped apricots, glace cherry halves etc.)
- About 50ml/1.75fl oz of either orange juice or alcohol ( brandy, rum, sherry etc.)
- 125g/4.5oz unsalted butter, softened, plus extra for greasing
- 200g/7oz dark chocolate (70%), broken into small chunks
- 2 medium eggs
- 125g/4.5oz soft light brown sugar
- ½ tsp salt
- 30g/1oz cocoa powder
- 20g/0.75oz plain flour
- Around 200g/7oz leftover cooked Christmas pudding, crumbled
- The macerated fruit (see above.)
Instructions
1. Before making the brownies you need to macerate the fruit. Put the fruit in a bowl and pour over the liquid. Leave to macerate, ideally overnight. Stir when convenient.
2. On the day, heat oven to 180˚C / fan 160˚C / 350˚F / Gas mark 4. Grease and line the bottom and sides of the baking tin with baking parchment.
3. Melt the chocolate and butter in a large heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water. When the chocolate and butter have melted, remove from the heat and set aside.
4. Whisk the eggs, sugar and salt in another bowl, then beat into the chocolate mixture. Sift and fold in the cocoa and flour. Spoon in most* of the Christmas pudding and most* of the macerated fruit. Fold in until just combined. (*Reserve enough to scatter over the top before baking.)
5. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and scatter the rest of the Christmas pudding and fruit on top.
6. Bake for 35-45 minutes, or until a crust has formed on top. Cool completely in the tin before slicing, using a wet serrated knife. As shown in one of the photos above, it’s not an easy bake to slice neatly. I think 30 minutes in the fridge or even 15 in the freezer before cutting, would have enabled an improvement. (I must remember next time.)
I hope you like this recipe and give it a go. For lots more brownie and blondie recipes have a look at my traybakes pages: https://retiredblokeonfoodnstuff.com/2-tray-bakes-2/
Retired Bloke on Food n stuff 