Donna Hay's Raspberry Spiked Brownies

My new workplace has this great little morning tea tradition. Every Wednesday the staff in the east wing of the Town Hall take turns cooking something to share with everyone. Two people are rostered on each week and usually one person will do sweet and one will do savoury. I made it very clear when I was first filled in on the workings of it that I could only do sweet!

Last week it was my turn so I thought I'd pull out a new recipe to go along with my apple crumble muffins (I'm told you don't have to cook two things but it's generally ok if that's what you want to do!). When we were on our girls' weekend in Warrnambool a few months ago I got a gorgeous little Donna Hay 'Chocolate' cookbook. I love the food photography that Donna Hay does - the rustic feel of it is just gorgeous. I took a quick look through it and quickly settled on this recipe - I'm sure by now you can understand why!

Donna Hay's Raspberry Spiked Brownies

THE RECIPE
Another quick and easy one! Preheat your oven to 180c. Melt 200g dark chocolate and 250g butter in the microwave, stirring every 40 seconds until melted and smooth.

In a bowl, mix together 4 eggs and 1 3/4 cups brown sugar then add the chocolate mixture. Sift over this 1 1/3 cups plain flour, 1/4 tsp baking powder and 1/3 cup cocoa. Mix to combine.

Pour the mixture into a lined square cake tin and top with 1 1/2 cups raspberries. The raspberries can be fresh or frozen, it doesn't really matter. It feels like a lot of raspberries but do put them all on because they shrink in quite a bit when they're cooked.

Bake for 30-35 minutes. The brownies should be quite fudgy so don't worry if they don't seem completely set. Let them cool completely in the tin before cutting into 16 squares. It's tempting to try and cut them while they're still warm but don't - it gets very messy!

My first offering for the traditional morning tea at work.

Nigella's Molten Chocolate Baby Cakes

So Nigella calls these Molten Chocolate Babycakes. The chefs would call them Chocolate Fondants. Some people call them Chocolate Lava Cakes or Soft Centred Chocolate Puddings. Whatever you call these little gems, they have one thing in common - they are incredible!

I'd have to say this is my favourite dessert. The first time I made these, my sister and I talked about them for days. They were so delicious; I think I made them three nights in a row!

So here I go again with my chocolate and raspberry combo. For me, you just can't go past it. It's the bomb. End of story.

THE RECIPE

For something so tasty, these things are fairly easy - I don't do difficult! Start by getting 6 ramekins, greasing them and lining the bottoms with some baking paper. Preheat the oven to 200c. Melt 350g dark chocolate using spurts in the microwave. Nigella says to use the best quality dark chocolate you can get but it can be pretty expensive - I get one block of the good stuff and mix it with the cadbury old gold. Set it aside to cool.

Cream together 50g butter and 150g caster sugar then add 4 large eggs, beating well between each addition. Mix in a pinch of salt and 1 tsp vanilla extract. Add 50g plain flour, mix until smooth and then scrape in the chocolate and mix gently to combine.

Resist the temptation to eat the mixture!

Divide the batter between the ramekins and sit them on a baking tray. Nigella doesn't do it in her recipe, but I learnt somewhere that you should put them in the fridge at this stage for half an hour or so. It helps them to set a bit and hold their form. The whole idea with fondants is that they're still squishy in the middle so putting them in the fridge helps that outer crust to sit a little firmer. From the fridge, pop them into the oven for 10-12 minutes. I sometimes leave them a little longer because I get scared that they won't come out of the moulds properly but if you want a true fondant, 12 minutes will do it!

Now, you can serve them however you want - cream, ice-cream, some mascapone with vanilla would be nice. You know me though... I put some vanilla ice-cream and some raspberries with it! I used to cook the raspberries up with caster sugar and sieve it to make a coulis but now I just pop the raspberries and sugar in the microwave for a minute or so and pour them straight over the top - just as tasty and much less effort!

Enjoy!

P.S - first recipe in my new house! The oven works well :)