Cadbury's Creme Egg Brownies - Take Two

When I first made these Cadbury's Creme Egg brownies last year they were a BIG hit in the staffroom at school and with Mr Birdie. When I promised I would bake recently they were top of the request list! It is very rare that I make the same recipe again and again as I like to try out new recipes (the exception being my banoffee pie which is one of the few things I return to) so I didn't want to use the same recipe that I used before. After a bit of research I decided on this Eric Lanlard recipe which has been doing the rounds on Twitter and Facebook. It's not too dissimilar to the recipe I used before.

This recipe will make 10 brownies using a rectangular tin (a square one will work as well - just reduce the number of Creme Eggs).

Ingredients:

150g unsalted butter (cut into small cubes)
200g dark chocolate (chopped)
100ml strong espresso coffee (I used a couple of teaspoons of instant)
250g golden caster sugar
1 sachet vanilla paste (I used a teaspoon of vanilla extract)
3 medium eggs
100g plain flour
5 Cadbury's Creme Eggs (halved)

Method:
1) Preheat your oven to 180C. Grease and line a brownie tin with butter and baking paper.
2) Melt the chocolate and butter in a glass bowl over a pan of simmering water (making sure the bowl and water don't touch). Once melted remove the bowl from the pan.

3) Stir in the sugar, vanilla and coffee (the mixture will be quite runny at this point). Beat the eggs with a fork and stir them into the mixture.

4) Once the mixture is smooth sieve the flour into the bowl and then fold in.

5) Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 15 minutes.

6) While the mixture is baking halve your Creme Eggs (this is tricky - Mr Birdie did this when I made them before but I was brave and did them myself this time. I found using a sawing motion with a serrated knife worked well).

6) After 15 minutes, remove the mixture from the oven and push in the Creme Egg halves. Put back in the oven for another 10 minutes until the mixture is set but is slightly sticky.

7) Leave to cool completely before slicing.

8) Enjoy! (With a drink of your choice...)

Eggtastic - Cadbury's Creme Egg Brownies

So, Easter is fast approaching and I decided today was time for a little Easter inspired baking. I had seen the recipe for these Cadbury Creme Egg brownies on Facebook (you can find the recipe here on the Cadbury Creme Egg Facebook page and decided to give them a go (much to my husband's delight!) 

You will need:
185g unsalted butter
185g dark chocolate
85g plain flour
40g cocoa powder
3 large eggs (I used medium and it still turned out fine)
275g golden caster sugar
6 Cadbury's Creme eggs (halved) 

The method is as follows...
1) Preheat the over to 160C and grease a 20cm square baking tin (I used a rectangular one and it was absolutely fine).
2) Melt the butter and chocolate together (either in a microwave or in a bowl over simmering water).
3) Break the eggs into a large bowl and add the sugar. Using an electric whisk on the highest setting (you will be there forever doing it by hand!), whisk the eggs and sugar together until they are thick and creamy. It can take 3-8 minutes and should have doubled in size by the time it's ready.
4) Pour the cooled chocolate and butter mixture over the eggy mouse and gently fold together until it looks like this...

5) Sieve the cocoa and flour into the eggy chocolate mixture and gently fold in.
6) Pour into a lined baking tin and cook for 15 minutes.

7) While the mixture is cooking cut your Cadbury's Creme Eggs in half (This can be tricky! I read somewhere that freezing them helped which I did do and I think made a difference. Luckily my husband proved a dab hand at halving them!)

8) After the brownie mixture has been in the oven for 15 minutes remove it from the oven and gently press the Cadbury's Creme Egg halves into the mix, spacing them apart evenly.

9) Return to the over for a further 5-10 minutes until a cocktail stick comes out clean.

10) Leave to cool before removing from the tin and cutting into slices.

11) Enjoy! (With the drink of your choice...)

They have gone down very well here!