Baking with Burns: How to make chocolate and cherry liqueur brownies

We all love chocolate, right? Here's a little treat which is perfect for this time of the year. Lisa has all the info you need...

I used to love Black Forest gateau when I was little.

The intense chocolate flavour with the warming cherry taste and a good sized dollop of fresh cream was my favourite.

Recently I had a Black Forest gateau flavoured hot chocolate and it was delicious. 

The taste took me back to being a child again, so I decided to take that taste and add it to some chocolate brownies.

Chocolate brownies are one of the most versatile snacks you can make. 

They were first developed in America at the end of the 19th century and are a cross between a cake and a biscuit. They can be served plain, or served warm with ice cream or cream and can have a variety of ingredients including nuts, chocolate chips and even chopped fruit.

These brownies are wonderfully moist in the middle and taste even better the next day. The cherry liqueur taste certainly added a wonderful festive taste - perfect for this time of year.

Ingredients

40g/1.5ozs of plain flour

85g/3ozs unsweetened cocoa powder

500g/1lb golden caster sugar

2-3ozs chocolate chips

200g/7ozs dark chocolate broken into small pieces (use chocolate with at least 70 per cent cocoa solids)

250g/8ozs unsalted butter, melted

Two tbls cherry liqueur

Two tsp vanilla essence

Four eggs, beaten

Two-three tsp icing sugar

Method 

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4. Lightly grease an 8insx12ins cake tin and line with baking paper or use a brownie tin.

2. Sift the flour and cocoa into a bowl and add the sugar and chocolate chips.

3. In a separate bowl melt the butter and stir in the chocolate until it is melted.

4. Pour the melted mixture into the dry ingredients and then add the cherry liqueur, vanilla and eggs. Mix until they are well combined.

5. Pour the mixture into the tin and make sure the surface is smooth. Bake for around 40 minutes. If the mixture is browning too quickly put a piece of folded baking paper on top. Make sure you don’t overbake. The mixture should still be a bit soft in the middle.

6. Leave in the tin to cool on a wire rack and then cut into squares as big or as small as you like! Sprinkle with icing sugar. Store the brownies in an airtight container.