Prickly Pear Brownies

Prickly Pear Brownies

These brownies are rich, fudgy and with a unique tartness that helps bring out the flavor of chocolate in the brownie. The Prickly Pear Jam adds to the fudginess of the brownie and the recipe in total is fairly stress-free and easy. It’s a universal truth that chocolate and fruit pair beautifully well together and I am simply taking that concept into what I do best – a baked good. Brownies had my name on it the other morning, and I thought to myself, “instead of licking the jam off the spoon, let me do something more productive!”.

This brownie is slightly different in recipe as compared the regular brownies; I increase the amount of flour simply because the jam tends to overtake in texture. I also have reduced the sugar quantity – the jam has enough sugar to compensate. I would even go so far as to reduce the amount of sugar to ¾ cup since I like the bitterness of cocoa. However, I’ve given you 1 cup for regular taste buds in the recipe below.

BUY PRICKLY PEAR JAM HERE

The Recipe
Serves Yields: 12-14 medium bars | Prep Time: 10 mins | Cook Time: 30 mins

Ingredients

  • ¾ cocoa powder, unsweetened
  • ¾ cup flour
  • ½ tsp baking soda
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 1 cup castor sugar
  • ¾ cup melted butter
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 tbsp espresso
  • ½ chocolate chips
  • ½ cup Prickly Pear Jam

Instructions

  • Grease and line a 9 inch brownie pan
  • Preheat the oven to 180C
  • Sift the cocoa powder, flour, baking soda and salt in a bowl
  • In a large mixing bowl, beat sugar and butter until light
  • Add the eggs, vanilla and espresso and beat until light and frothy
  • Add the dry ingredients and combine with a wooden spoon until just combined
  • Add the chocolate chips and stir
  • Pour the batter into the cake tin and drop dollops of jam on top and swirl
  • Bake in the oven for 25 to 30 minutes
  • Remove from the oven and let cool completely before slicing
  • Can serve with some powdered sugar sprinkled and a dollop of ice cream

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The recipes are tried and tested, some are adapted from various places, and a few are passed down; but every one of them comes straight from the heart.