Gooey chocolate and pear brownie
Perfect for bonfire parties and sharing with friends. Chocolate and pears are a match made in heaven. Nostalgic and delicious, this brownie can be cut into slabs and eaten as it is, or smothered with sticky hot chocolate sauce and a dollop of ice cream to create a welcoming pudding to warm the cockles of your heart on a cold winter’s night. This makes lots for sharing!
Ingredients
- 300g unsalted butter, softened
- 180g soft brown sugar
- 180g caster sugar
- 4 eggs and 1 egg yolk
- 90g self-raising flour
- A pinch of sea salt
- 70g cocoa powder, sifted
- 200g chocolate, melted (dark or milk)
- 80g milk chocolate chunks
- 4 small pears, peeled, cored and cut into eighths
Serves at least 16
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
- Line a 20 x 30cm traybake tin with a piece of foil and then non-stick baking paper.
- Melt the 200g chocolate gently in the microwave or in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water. Leave to one side to cool a little at room temperature.
- Slice the cored and peeled pears into eighths.
- Put the soft butter and both the sugars into a large mixing bowl or into the bowl of a stand mixer. Beat until pale and creamy.
- Break the 4 eggs and the extra yolk (without the white) into a jug and beat well with a fork.
- Add the eggs to the butter and sugar mixture a little at a time, and beat well until creamy and mixed in.
- Sift in the flour, cocoa powder and salt, then fold into the mixture using a thin-sided spatula or large spoon.
- Scrape the melted chocolate onto the mixture and fold in.
- Spoon the mixture into the lined tin. Smooth to make it even.
- Slice the pears and core. Lay them on top of the chocolate mixture.
- Sprinkle over the chocolate chunks.
- Bake in the preheated oven for about
35-40 minutes and then leave to cool in the
tin before serving.