My first recipe of 2009 is a delicacy created by my good friend Lisa over at Lisa's Kitchen. Lisa took a Nigella Lawson recipe for chocolate brownies with nuts, played about with it and in my opinion, made it infinitely better by adding dried fruit. This makes for a really moist brownie, with little hints of fruit, which is simply gorgeous! I cooked my brownies in a cake pan and served the first portion hot with custard. It was just what we wanted.

















Brownies with Dried Fruit

1 1/2 cups of unsalted butter
375 grams of dark chocolate
6 eggs
1 tablespoon of vanilla
2 1/2 cups of sugar
1 1/2 cups of unbleached white flour
1 teaspoon of sea salt
2 cups of chopped dried fruit

(Lisa used dates, figs and a few prunes, when I made it I added soft dried apricots and dates, which is what was sitting in my store cupboard)

Grease or line a 12 X 9 inch baking pan with parchment paper.

Melt the butter and chocolate together in a large, heavy bottomed pot.

In a large bowl, beat together the eggs, sugar and vanilla. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, chopped fruit and salt.

Pour the melted chocolate and butter into the egg and sugar mixture. Beat to combine and then add the flour and fruit and beat again. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.

Bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for roughly 40 minutes, or until the top dries and begins to crack slightly and the interior is dark and gooey.

I am entering this brownie recipe into Ruth's Bookmarked Recipes .....where anyone from anywhere can blog about a recipe they had bookmarked from a cook book, food magazine, food blog, food website, from TV etc, make it and submit it to a weekly roundup. I think Lisa's recipe is well worthy of this challenge.