Ginger Brownies

I wanted to bake something for my son, who needed a little bit of TLC after an unpleasant hospital procedure. Unfortunately this happened in the middle of the recent heatwave, and while I was happy to quickly mix something and throw it in the oven (and then get out of the kitchen), I wasn't in the mood for complex or new recipes.

As he loves chocolate, it was simplest to fall back on my trusty brownie recipe. This time I added ground ginger, mixed spice and crystallised ginger pieces to the mix. It was easier to use crystallised ginger rather than stem ginger in syrup, as the pieces could be cut with scissors where necessary, and I didn't get sticky in the process.

The basic method is: Melt together 140g plain chocolate and 140g unsalted butter. Cool to lukewarm and beat in 300g light muscovado sugar and three eggs, one at a time. Sift  160g plain flour, 3 tablespoons cocoa, 1 teaspoon ground ginger and 1/2 teaspoon of mixed spice together, and fold into the chocolate mixture, then fold in 100g crystallised ginger, cut into small pieces if necessary.

Spoon the batter into an 8" square tin, lined with baking parchment, and bake for around 30 minutes at 180C, depending on how gooey you like your brownies. Cut into squares or fingers while still warm, but cool completely in the tin before removing the brownies.

This was a nice amount of spice to use in the brownies - not too strong, but complimenting the warmth of the ginger pieces in the batter, I've reduced the amount of sugar I use in this recipe - it used to contain 400g - but the revised version still makes a dense chewy brownie, just the way we like them!