How to make the Most Scrumptious Chocolate Brownie After Dinner Platter

A mouthful of words for a decadent feast. On days when you dream of dessert, the kind that is warm and gooey and homemade, but have already a flock of hungry almost-teenagers asking for money to go the shop and buy sweets, reach for the dark chocolate. There are few that can resist the temptation of a chocolate pud with fruits and nuts to boot.

“Give me 20 minutes” I call out.

Ingredients fly around the kitchen, grabbing and weighing and blitzing in the food processor. This last, is the Jamie Oliver trick that sometimes works for me, for some recipes, and sometimes not. I don’t have all the necessary attachments for chopping, you see. Yet my standard device works perfectly wonderfully for the making of the most scrumptious chocolate brownie after dinner platter.

When I look at chocolate makers with wide eyed wonder (how in the world do they make all that chocolate and not eat it all up at once?), I think of the flavours that are especially good. A Terrys Chocolate Orange, that mastery of segments that have survived decades and remained completely unchanged. The sharpness of a freeze dried raspberry in a particularly good dark bar. Shards of sea salt that cut through those thin slivers of Swiss Lindt. A Cadbury Fruit and Nut that brings me to tales of my Nana dropping off parcels of clean laundry to my Dad at flight school, with chocolate bars hidden up the sleeves of his shirts.

This brownie brings lots of these flavours together, with the added nudge of crystallised ginger, a jar of which I have hidden in the cupboard to sneak syrup onto porridge in the winter, or add tiny slices to lime sorbet in Summer. Don-t chop this latter too finely, or the taste will be lost in the decadence of the brownie.

Chefs sometimes forget that humble families tend not to have all the ingredients to hand on a hurried supper night. I am one such mother in a rush. But to my delight, I could rustle up everything I needed, including some salty pretzels that are extraordinarily good with chocolate too.

The Most Scrumptious Chocolate Brownie

200g of good dark chocolate (the kind that you may graze on)

250g salted butter (I use Kerrygold), at room temperature

200g brown sugar

130g flour

1 tsp baking powder

3 tbsp raw cocoa powder

4 eggs

Add all of the above ingredients to a food processor and whizz until it turns into brownie mixture.

Turn it into a small baking tray that is lined with greaseproof paper.

Chop 6 balls of stem ginger into a fine dice, syrup drained off for use on porridge or cocktails. Scatter these over the top of the brownie mixture. Add a scatter of flaked almonds, frozen raspberries and redcurrants and the zest of a full orange. Press lightly into the mixture s they are only just poking out.

Pop into the oven preheated to 180 degrees C and cook for 15-25 minutes (mine always take the longest amount of time, so keep checking as it will depend on your oven).

Cool in the tin and slice into squares to serve.

The After Dinner Platter

For children and grown-ups who like to graze, this would make a good movie platter, or a camping-in-the-garden treat. I toast almonds and cashews lightly in the oven, chop up some apples, scatter over some berries and salted pretzels, together with the brownie squares, and you have a platter of sorts. Also great are orange segments or even clementines if it is Christmas time.

#AlwaysBringAPicnic

Of course, these are perfect to pull out of a picnic basket at the races or on a forest hike. They will only crumble slightly, and give you lots of onwards-and-upwards energy.