Gingerbread Brownies

The festive season is well and truly upon us and I love this time of year especially. The build up to Christmas for me is the best time. It’s the anticipation of what is about to come. Time spent with loved ones, gorgeous food of course and maybe the odd present or two! Back to that seasonal food however…

This is a very simple recipe which can be knocked up in no time at all if you have guests coming over for a mug of cocoa. It combines the flavours of chocolate and ginger which go so well together, although I’m not a huge lover of chocolate gingers. In my opinion, my recipe for gingerbread brownies packs in those warm, comforting flavours in a much better way.

The recipe is an easy brownie mix with ginger added three ways – ground ginger, grated fresh ginger and crushed up ginger nut biscuits (or gingersnaps depending on where you are in the world).The biscuits are crushed up and stirred through the brownie batter at the end before the whole mix is baked.

The result is a fudgy, gooey brownie in the center and crispy edges too, but with crunchy biscuits throughout. The addition of ginger gives that gingerbread hint to the chocolatey squares with a slight tingle from the ginger at the back of your mouth.
My ginger root looked like a hippo - what do you think?

I added some golden glitter to the top of the squares with a wee gingerbread man I bought in a supermarket, just to bling them up a bit, bit that is entirely optional of course.
Here’s how I made them…
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Gingerbread Browniesby S Vettese December-8-2016Chocolate brownies with three kinds of ginger going on!Ingredients

• 125 ml vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 225 grams granulated sugar
• 2 medium eggs
• 50 grams plain flour
• 35 grams unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• Pinch of salt
• 1/2 inch fresh ginger root
• 100 grams crushed ginger nut biscuits

InstructionsPreheat the oven to 180C (160C fan) and line an 8”x8” baking tin with greaseproof paper.Place the ginger nut biscuits in a zip-loc bag and crush up so they are broken into pieces but not like crumbs – you want pieces of biscuit throughout.In a small bowl sift together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, ground ginger, cinnamon and salt. Set aside.In a large bowl, mix together the oil, vanilla, sugar and eggs with a whisk until smooth.Add the dry ingredients from the smaller bowl and fold through with a spoon or spatula. Grate in the ginger and mix this through.Lastly add the crush biscuits and stir these through also.Pour into the prepared baking tin and smooth the ingredients out.Bake in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the top is slightly cracked.Remove from the oven and allow to cool before slicing into 12 squares.Enjoy! DetailsPrep time: 15 mins Cook time: 20 mins Total time: 35 mins Yield: 12 brownies

I'm adding these brownies to this month's Treat Petite hosted this December by my co-host Kat, The Baking Explorer.