Christmas Mincemeat Brownies

I think most people get a case of Christmas baking guilt at this time of year.

 All those blogs out there holding us accountable for not getting in the kitchen and bake everything from scratch using ingredients which can only be found in the upper left corner of the Himalayas next to the fairy tree, nourished with tears donated by the three humped slumber bear.

Which in turn usually means that most people end up with at least one jar of sweet mincemeat in their pantry with no intention of making mince pies.

Try this instead, it quite possibly could become a new Christmas tradition.

 Mincemeat and chocolate may not be the first thing that springs to mind when thinking of flavour combinations, but let me assure you, even for haters of mincemeat, mixing it into this brownie, is a way of converting all you sceptics out there.

And, no need to melt chocolate to get an amazing brownie.

All you have to do is decide how squidgy you like your brownies – See Tip Box for this.

 Go on, give it a go, and enjoy your sweet life!

Gooey or not, it’s all about how tong you bake them for!

 What You Need

•  411g Jar Mincemeat – See Tip Box

• 300g Soft Brown Sugar

• 150g Butter – Cuit into small chunks – See Tip Box

• 150g Plain Flour

• 60g Cocoa Powder – See Tip Box

• 2 Large Eggs

• Icing sugar - Optional for decorating

Mix the dry ingredients really well.

 How It’s Done

•  Heat the oven to 180c

• Prepare a 9’ x 9’ square tin or oven proof dish by completely lining it with non-stick baking parchment – See Tip Box

• Set the prepared tin aside until needed.

• Melt the butter by either placing into a microwavable bowl and zapping for 30 seconds, stirring, zapping for another 30 seconds before stirring again. Don’t over heat the butter, It should not bubble

• Alternatively, place the butter into a small saucepan and heat gently on the stove top until it just melts, again, make sure it doesn’t bubble.

• Once melted, remove it from the heat and set it aside to cool a little until needed.

• Place the flour and cocoa powder into a bowl and give then a good mix until both are completely combined.

Mix in all the sweet mincemeat

• In a separate bowl, add the mincemeat, the two eggs, the sugar and the melted butter.

• Mix all of these together until there are no lumps of sugar left and everything is really well combined.

Get the mixture into each corner.

• Add the dry flour mixture into the wet mixture and use a large spoon or spatula to mix everything together making sure to scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl several times as you mix. – See Tip Box

• Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin and use an offset spatula to flatten out the top and to make sure that the brownie mix gets right into the corners and into any creases of the parchment paper – See Tip Box

Dust with icing sugar and cut into 16 pieces.

• Place the tin into the hot oven and bake for 20- 30 minutes, depending on how squidgy you like your brownies. – See Tip Box

• Start checking the brownie at 20 minutes, and if not how you like it, check a few minutes after that until it suits you.

• Once baked to your liking, remove the tin from the oven and let the brownie completely cool while still in the tin.

• Once completely cold, use the parchment paper to lift the brownie out of the tin.

• Dust with icing sugar, if using, and cut the square into 16 even pieces.

• Eat straight away, or store in an airtight container for a few days.

Fudgy middles

 Tip Box

Mincemeat - 411g is around one small jar, a little more or a little less won’t make that much of a difference. if you can only get a large jar, make two lots of the Christmas brownie, or store the opened jar in the fridge for a few days until you are ready to make more.

Butter – I always use salted butter to cook and bake with, but it you use unsalted, add a small pinch of salt to the flour mixture.

Cocoa Powder – Don’t substitute drinking chocolate for the cocoa powder. Cocoa powder is a dry powder made from ground cacao beans. It has a stronger, more intense chocolate flavour than drinking chocolate but lacks the creaminess of real chocolate. Drinking chocolate usually has a lot of sugar already in it, unlike cocoa powder.

Prepare the tin – Cut out a square piece of non-stick baking parchment with an overhang on each side of about 2 ‘. Scrunch it up in your hand into a tight ball, then un-scrunch it.

Lay the parchment into the tin and use fingers to push it into the corners. Scrunching it up helps the paper fit into the corners without having to cut out lots of pieces to fit the tin.

Mixing the dry into the wet – When mixing for the final time, it’s important that everything gets a thorough mix, so that the mincemeat is dispersed throughout the brownie.

Into the corners – Spending just a little time smoothing the top of the mixture and getting it right into each corner ensures that the mixture cooks evenly. Because the parchment has been scrunched up to make fitting it into the tin a little easier, it can form creases in the corners, so it needs a little help to get right in there.  

Baking Time – How long to bake the brownie, not only depends on your oven (all ovens are different and conduct heat differently), it also depends on how squidgy you like your brownies. Check them after 20 minutes, but be aware, unlike cakes, inserting a tooth pick in the middle to check for doneness won’t really work. The whole idea of a brownie is to have some type of squidgy in the centre, so when it comes out of the oven, molten hot, it should still have a wobble in the centre.

I can still see pieces of mincemeat. Yummm!