Christmas Brownies

[taffetazatyousantaclaus]

I am doing my usual Oh God I haven't got enough stuff in for Christmas panic.

I have at the last minute decided that i must make brownies as a chocolate option that isn't from a tin or box of chocolates. I am thinking about these Jamie ones, has anyone tried them?

I always make Nigel Slater's, and was toying with the idea of those with some grated orange zest in to make them a bit more festive, but thought the JO ones may be more Christmassy as they have cherries and nuts in.

I have 3 bars of good dark choc, butter, sugar, cocoa, dried fruits and nuts etc.

Anyone any thoughts or recommendations? Think I'll make them tonight.

we do Nigella's version which are FAB (but with 2/3 of the quantity she recommends - ie 250g chocolate - otherwise, you end up with enough brownies to feed the whole street).
It always seems to need longer cooking time than she suggests though...

I always make the Nigel Slater recipe (I've experimented and think his are the absolute best brownies) but add fruit/nuts/chocolate chips depending on my mood.

Not sure off the top of my head how much I add, but think probably about 100g of whatever it is that I'm using. Perhaps you could guestimate by comparing Nigel's to recipes that contain the nuts.

Now there's an idea, happysmiley. I know where I am with Nigel, so would be more than happy to use his recipe and add 50g cherries or cranberries and 50g pecans or walnuts maybe. Will have a look at some other recipes to see if I need to adjust quantities of anything else. If you add nuts and dried fruit do you need to add liquid to kind of offset it?

I just add the nuts etc to the recipe as it is. No other changes required IMO.

thanks, its in the oven.....I opted for sour cherries and pecans