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Photograph of Marzipan Brownies - aka Sherborne Brownies

Marzipan Brownies – aka Sherborne Brownies

With the classic intense, fudgy, chocolate interior, spiked with a hint of coffee and a touch of salt, these brownies are loaded with chunks of golden, sweet marzipan. An explosion of contrasting textures and flavours, these cakes have the classic crinkly brownie top and an addictive soft and gooey centre. The marzipan becomes a little more chewy as it cooks and is wonderfully balanced by the delicate kick of sea salt flakes.

Makes 16 squares

Course afternoon tea, Dessert, Morning Coffee
Keyword chocolate brownies, marzipan
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Author Susan

Ingredients

  • 250g golden marzipan
  • 200g unsalted butter, in cubes
  • 200g dark chocolate, 70% cocoa solids, broken into pieces
  • 100g soft brown sugar
  • 100g caster sugar
  • ¼ teaspoon fine salt
  • 3 eggs
  • 100g plain/all-purpose flour, sieved
  • 25g unsweetened cocoa, sieved
  • ¼ teaspoon instant coffee powder, sieved
  • large pinch of sea salt flakes, optional

Instructions

  1. Collect together your equipment (see Recipe Notes below) and ingredients.

  2. Preheat oven to 190°C/375°F/Gas 5 (fan 170°C) and line a 20cm/8inch square baking tin with baking parchment.

  3. Chop the marzipan into small cubes – I like to make them a mixture of different sizes. Lay some baking parchment onto a flat surface, I use a chopping board, and scatter the marzipan cubes on it, in an even layer. Pop in the freezer to harden.

  4. Chop the butter into squares and place in a microwave safe bowl with the chopped chocolate. Melt in a microwave or a bain marie and mix until smooth. (See Recipe Notes for details.)

  5. Meanwhile put the sugars, salt and eggs in a mixing bowl and beat with an electric whisk until thick and creamy. This will take around 3 – 5 minutes.

  6. Pour the chocolate and butter into the eggs and sugar, whilst whisking, until smooth and glossy. Another 3 – 4 minutes.

  7. Put a sieve over the bowl and add the flour, cocoa and coffee. Sift directly over the cake batter and fold until nearly mixed in.

  8. Add the chopped marzipan from the freezer to the brownie mix and fold in. The freezing cold marzipan may thicken the batter – this is normal, don’t worry!

  9. Transfer to your lined baking tin and level the surface, making sure the cake batter goes all the way into the corners and where possible, any cubes of marzipan poking through the surface are covered with the brownie batter.

  10. Sprinkle over the sea salt flakes.

  11. Bake in the centre of the pre-heated oven for 20 – 25 minutes, depending on how squidgy you like the centre to be. (I cook mine for 23 minutes.) This gives me a slightly crispy top but a gorgeous gooey centre. The cake will be slightly risen and cracked around the edges but the centre will feel quite soft. Remember the cake will continue to cook after you have taken it out of the oven.

  12. Leave to cool in the tin for 20 – 30 minutes and then transfer, in the baking parchment, to a cooling rack.

  13. When the brownies are cool, cut into 16 squares and serve.

Recipe Notes

Equipment:

  • Chopping board, knife and baking parchment.
  • Large microwave safe jug or heatproof bowl
  • Electric whisk and mixing bowl
  • Kitchen scales and measuring spoons
  • Sieve
  • Chopping board and knife as well as rolling pin or mallet
  • 20cm/8inch square baking tin lined with baking parchment

Be very careful melting the chocolate. Chocolate can be very difficult to work with. You can overheat it very easily and the mixture will go grainy. When this happens, there is no way to resolve it I’m afraid!

Microwave: I give the chocolate (and butter) a minute in the microwave, take it out and stir it well, then let it sit for a few minutes to see if it continues melting sufficiently to melt all the chocolate. If not, I then continue with the microwave but in 10 – 15 second bursts.

Bain Marie: if you do not have a microwave, put the chocolate (and butter) in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of gently simmering water. Do not let the base of the bowl touch the water. Heat until the chocolate and butter are very nearly melted then take it off the heat and take the bowl off the saucepan. Be very careful not to burn yourself as the bowl will be hot and steam will escape from the saucepan. Allow the mixture to sit for a few minutes for the residual heat to melt the remainder of the mixture. Again, be careful not to over-heat.

What size tin shall I use?

In order to guarantee soft and fudgy brownies, it is important to use the correct size tin – in this case it is a 20cm/8inch square tin. If your tin is larger, the depth of your cake batter will be less and the cake will cook more quickly. Equally, if the tin is smaller, your cake batter will be deeper and cook more slowly.

Lining a tin with baking parchment:

  1. Sit the tin on greaseproof paper making sure the paper is large enough to line the tin, come up the sides and have a little overhang.
  2. Cut out the corners of the paper so it will fit easily into the tin
  3. Fold the paper from corner to corner so the size of the centre of the paper matches the base of the tin. Slot inside the tin.

What is the best way to serve brownies?

Brownies are delicious served simply with a cup of tea or coffee, and they also make a fabulous dessert with some vanilla ice cream.

Make and freeze ahead of time.

If you want to be the ‘hostess with the mostess’ this Christmas, whip up a batch now and freeze them before you bake them. You can cook them directly from frozen, when required. Simply allow an extra 10 minutes in the oven, and you are good to go. What better than being able to present your guests with freshly baked brownies in less than 40 minutes, with absolutely no faff? For more information on cooking brownies from frozen, please see this post.