Bella's Christmas Bake Off (26 page)
Read Bella's Christmas Bake Off Online
Authors: Sue Watson
T
hese delicious
, cranberry studied brownies always take me right back to my friend Amy’s house at Christmas. It was always warm and cosy and in the vanilla and cinnamon scented kitchen we would ‘help’ her mum by sampling the batter and scattering the dried cranberries, which we’d pretend were Rudolph noses. Every Christmas Eve, Amy’s mum would leave one of these for Father Christmas and one for Rudolph, and on Christmas Morning they were gone - which is why we kept believing in Father Christmas.
This is Amy’s mother’s recipe...
250g dark chocolate 100g butter, plus a little extra for greasing the tin 3 eggs
250g cooked beetroot, drained 250g light brown sugar 150g ground almonds 2tbsp cocoa
1tbsp baking powder 50g dried cranberries Teaspoon of cinnamon
Preheat the oven to 180°C and grease a 23cm square baking tin with a little butter and line with non-stick baking paper. Leave two ‘tails’ at either side to help you lift the cooked brownie out of the tin.
B
reak
up the chocolate into squares, place in a heatproof bowl with the butter, and set over a pan of barely simmering water. Allow the mixture to gently melt, while stirring gently.
T
ip the beetroot
into a food processor and purée, (Amy’s mum used to mash with a strong potato masher, but I love my gadgets!) Then add the melted chocolate, butter and eggs and whizz again until combined. Then add the sugar, ground almonds, cocoa, baking powder and cinnamon and process until you have a smooth batter. Lift the lid off - breathe in, and the sweet, spicy fragrance of chocolate and cinnamon will take you straight to Christmas heaven.
N
ow pour
into the baking tin, sprinkle on the cranberries (Rudolph noses) and bake for about 30 minutes until the top is set and the brownie is starting to pull a little away from the sides of the tin.
O
nce out of the oven
, ease the brownie from the tin with the paper ‘tails’ and cut into 16 squares. When cool, dust the surface with a little icing sugar, while singing ‘I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas.’
Happy Christmas!
Love, Bella x
T
hank
you to the wonderful team at Bookouture who never fail me and this time turned my Christmas cake batter into something extremely scrumptious. Christmas kisses to Oliver Rhodes, Kim Nash, Emily Ruston, Jade Craddock and the rest of the tasty team for baking until golden and adding all that yummy frosting!
To Nick and Eve Watson, thanks for putting up with my ‘Christmasness’ in July, and as always thanks to my lovely family and friends for their love, support and laughter.
And a special thank you to my readers, for buying my books, getting in touch and inspiring me in so many different and delicious ways. Happy Christmas!
Published by Bookouture, an imprint of StoryFire Ltd.
Copyright © Sue Watson 2015
Sue Watson has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places and events other than those clearly in the public domain, are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
ISBN: 978-1-910751-60-2