Gingerbread Brownies

Nothing says the holidays like gingerbread figures! I was looking at a couple of gingerbread brownies from this site, although I guess one was gingerbread rocky road. I like this one as it is a spiced brownie then topped with gingerbread cookies, gingerbread crumbs, and chocolate. As you will note, the recipe gives the quantities in weight measurements, which I find to be a lot easier and is generally more precise. This is a British recipe, and since I use a lot of British cookbooks and blogs, I have learned to love weight measurements!

The challenge I had for these cookies was finding the gingerbread cookies for the top. I envisioned a bag of small gingerbread people, but all I could find was Walker’s Shortbread Gingerbread. Don’t get me wrong, they are excellent, but they are a little bit big and there were only 8 in the package. I used two for crumbs, 5 to top the brownies, and one for the baker. Perhaps smaller cookies come out closer to the actual holiday?

This makes a fairly thick brownie, which is ok, but I did find I needed to bake mine longer than I had initially expected. I melted the chocolate for the topping, and it started to seize, which was frustrating, so I ended up piping that on rather than drizzling. The cookies are quite large, which was tricky. I photographed the brownies as a whole, as they looked quite strange once cut. None the less, these a lovely moist brownies with a balance of chocolate and spice flavors!

Gingerbread Brownies
200 grams butter
200 grams dark chocolate
3 eggs
275 grams brown sugar
90 grams flour
35 grams cocoa powder
3 teaspoons ginger
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
250 grams chocolate chips

Gingerbread Cookies
Melted Chocolate

Heat the oven to 355 degrees. Line a 9” square pan with foil and spray the foil with nonstick cooking spray.

Place the butter and dark chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave in 30 second increments, stirring frequently, until the mixture is smooth. Allow the mixture to cool slightly.

In a large mixer bowl, combine the eggs and brown sugar. Whisk for several minutes, until the mixture doubles in size and becomes pale. Whisk until the mixture is similar to a mousse in consistency. Fold in the melted chocolate mixture, then the flour, cocoa powder, ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Stir in the chocolate chips. Spread in the prepared baking pan.

Bake for 25-35 minutes, until a cake tester inserted into the brownies comes out clean. Allow the brownies to cool in the pan.

Once cool, drizzle with melted chocolate and top with gingerbread cookies. Cut into squares.

Recipe from Jane’s Patisserie