A festive Gingerbread Caramel Brownie recipe by co-founder Claire to make at home this lockdown Christmas

A festive Gingerbread Caramel Brownie recipe by co-founder Claire to make at home this lockdown Christmas

Created by co-founder Claire, this festive bake is easy to make at home & is the perfect treat for this lockdown Christmas...as a well known retailer has coined, we all deserve a treat this Christmas! Claire created this recipe a couple of years ago and our gingerbread caramel brownies & hot chocolates are now firm annual festive favourites amongst our chocolate house customers

“This festive brownie heros the flavours of our Gold Academy of Chocolate Award-winning Gingerbread Caramel chocolates which we make fresh every Christmas. Using the same blend of spices as in our chocolate, this brownie is truly delicious served warm to get the caramel layer oozing & with vanilla ice cream. A perfect dessert for the festive season!
You can also make the gingerbread caramel on its own and add it to hot chocolate for a decadently delicious drink to get you in the Christmas mood. If you are in Exeter, Winchester or Swanage over December, why not take a break from Christmas shopping to visit us and enjoy a Gingerbread Caramel hot chocolate in one of our Chocolate Houses?”

Gingerbread Caramel:

50ml double cream
20g unsalted butter
60g caster sugar
40g golden syrup
1 tbsp treacle
1 tbsp water
1 clove
½ tsp allspice
¼ tsp ground ginger
¼ tsp ground cinnamon
Pinch of crushed sea salt

Brownie:

250g 70% dark chocolate, chopped
175g unsalted butter, cut into cubes
125g light muscovado sugar
4 eggs
100g ground almonds (or 100g plain flour if you want it to be nut-free)
½ teaspoon crushed sea salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
Optional cocoa powder or icing sugar to decorate

22cm square baking tin lined with baking parchment, around the base and up the sides

1 shallow dish lined with baking parchment for cooling the caramel

Makes 16 squares

Pre heat the oven to 180c 350F Gas 4

To make the caramel:

1. Put the cream, spices & salt in a small pan and warm gently to bring it slowly to just boiling point.

2. Put the caster sugar, golden syrup, treacle & water in another small pan and warm gently to melt the sugar. Once it has formed a dark liquid, increase the heat. Once it comes to the boil, time it for 2 minutes. During that time, regularly lift the pan off the heat to swirl the bubbling mixture (do not stir it!) to ensure that it doesn’t catch on the bottom.

3. After 2 minutes, take off the heat to add the warm cream mixture & then the butter. Then stir the mixture gently on a low heat to ensure that the butter melts in.

4. Pour the mixture through a sieve into the prepared shallow dish lined with baking parchment and leave somewhere cool to set into a gooey caramel for at least 15 minutes.

To make the brownie: 

1. While the caramel is cooling, melt the chocolate and butter in a bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water. Do not allow the water to boil and once melted remove the bowl from the heat and leave to cool for a few minutes.

2. Beat the eggs & sugar together in a separate bowl with a hand-held electric whisk, until increased in volume, pale and fluffy.

3. Fold the ground almonds, salt and vanilla extract into the egg mixture with a large metal spoon, add the melted chocolate mixture and gently fold it all together. 

4. Pour half of the brownie mixture into the prepared tin, drizzle in ¾ of the caramel using a spoon & if you have one, a kebab stick to spread it around the surface of the brownie.

5. Then pour on the remaining brownie mixture. Finish by drizzling the remaining caramel mixture in swirly lines on the top of the brownie.

Bake in the pre-heated oven for 20-22 minutes, until risen at the edges but still squidgy in the middle.  Don’t worry if it seems undercooked, as it will continue cooking after being taken out of the oven. Don’t be tempted to overcook it as the brownie will be dry.

Leave to cool in the tin before you cut into squares of a size to suit you. 

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