Booster Brownies (Coffee / Earl Grey / Lapsang Suchong and Prune)

A work colleague recently tried to make the earl grey and prune version of the recipe for pistachio and rosewater brownies  from the flavours of Suffolk Blog. For reasons which we’ve debated at length without firm conclusion, even after 35 minutes baking and subsequest cooling they were still liquid in the middle, as below:

After some googling, he decdided to but them back in to bake some more. At which point they became even more liquidy. I decided I’d give the recipe a go and see what happened to me. I’ve called them Booster Brownies because I soaked my prunes in very strong coffee so they give a boost to you insides from the prunes and a boost to your energy from the caffeine. I guess they are a little bit good for sports people too as they might give you some oomph!

Mine came out as below. I was worried that the amount of flour would make them too much like a cake rather than a brownie but they were pleasantly moist inside. I didn’t have any issue with them not setting, so I can only think that maybe my colleague didn’t drain their prunes or maybe the white chocolate affected it. I’ve had a lot of people asking for the recipe for these so I think they might go to the top of the brownie-recipe-list.

Tasty Boosted Brownies

Booster Brownies
(Prune and Coffee)

Makes about 25

300g prunes
1 pot of very strong coffee or tea of your choice
300g butter
420 grams plain flour, sifted
Half tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/4 tsp salt if not using salted butter
450g dark chocolate
3 eggs
345g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
optional: 200g chocolate chunks (white, milk dark or you could add nuts)
12inch square tin (or I used a 20 x 25cm tin and a loaf tin) which is about 3inches tall.

Line and grease it the tin.

Preheat oven to 170C fan or 180c normal.

Put the prunes in a bowl / tuppaware.
Brew an incredibly strong pot of whatever you want to soak them in, pour it over, cover and leave overnight.

Melt butter and chocolate together in microwave or in a bowl over simmering water.
Leave to cool as you continue.

Drain the prunes well and snip up a bit using scissors. Put to one side.

In one bowl, big enough for the whole mixture later, whisk together the sugar, eggs and vanilla bean paste until combined.

Measure out the flour, bicarb and salt into another bowl. Add and mix through prunes and the choc-chunks or nuts if you are adding them.
Use a metal spoon to fold the cooled chocolate mixture into the egg/sugar mixture.
Fold in all the dry ingredients until combined.
Spoon the mixture into the tin and smooth it out.
Bake in the pre-heated oven for 25 minutes or until the top is cracking and a knife comes out just about clean.
Allow to cool in the tin before cutting.