Since we’re adopting Halloween just for the fun of it, we’ve also decided to try pumpkin as a sweet ingredient so popular in American cuisine. The pumpkin has such a delicate flavour that it easily adapts to the chocolate, it adds a dose of fibre and lightens an otherwise decadent dessert.
The spiderweb design adds a spooky flair and is surprisingly easy to put together. We might even feel a little less guilty indulging in this chocolatey treat as pumpkin is a vegetable…and this goes (a little) towards the 5 daily servings of fruit and veg, right?
Preparation time : 1 hour
Serves : 8 large brownies
Ingredients :
For the Chocolate batter:
- 3/4 cup plain flour
- 1 cup caster sugar
- 1/4 cup Dutch baking cocoa
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 cup coconut oil
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the Pumpkin batter:
- 1 cup caster sugar
- 1 cup plain flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 300g fresh pumpkin (we used butternut pumpkin)
- 2 eggs
- 1 pinch of tumeric (optional)
- For the chocolate ganache:
- 70g dark chocolate, finely chopped
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
For the spiderweb frosting:
- 2 cups icing sugar
- 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
- 1 tbsp heavy cream
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Method:
- Preheat oven to 180C with the ovenrack in the center position. Line a 27 x 17cm slice pan with baking paper and brush with butter or coconut oil.
- Make chocolate batter by whisking sugar, flour, cocoa, salt and baking powder in a large bowl. Whisk oil, eggs and vanilla seperately and then add to the dry ingredients until just moistened. Batter should be thick.
- Cover the base of the lined pan with roughly 2/3 of the chocolate batter.
- To make the pumpkin batter first make the pumpkin puree by peeling the pumpkin and roughly chopping it into 15mm cubes.
- Put the pumpkin in a microwave-safe bowl with a lid and microwave covered on high for 4 minutes or until the cubes are soft.
- Puree these using a stick blender or food processor until smooth. You will need 3/4 cup of puree for this recipe.
- Combine sugar, flour, salt, cinnamon and baking powder in a large bowl. We added a pinch of turmeric at this point to enhance the colour.
- In a separate bowl combine pumpkin puree and eggs and whisk with a fork.
- Gradually add the pumpkin mix to the dry ingredients until just moist.
- Spread half the pumpkin mixture over the chocolate mixture. Using a tablespoon, drop scoops of chocolate batter and pumpkin batter on the top then spread and swirl.
- Bake until a skewer inserted into the middle of the brownie comes out clean, roughly 25-30 minutes.
- Once cool enough to handle, the brownie can be removed from the pan and allowed to cool on a wire rack. The brownie must be completely cooled before adding the ganache icing. Once cooled, cut the brownie into even squares, depending on what size you prefer.
- First make the white icing for the spiderweb design by combining icing sugar, butter, extract and cream with an electric beater until smooth, if the mixture is a little dry add more cream. Add the icing mixture to a piping bag with a small round nozzle. If you do not have a piping bag, you can use a clean plastic bag, like a ziploc bag with a corner cut to make a tiny hole.
- To make the chocolate ganache, add the finely chopped chocolate to a heatproof bowl. Heat the cream in a small saucepan over medium heat until bubbles start appearing around the edges.
- Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and allow it to melt the chocolate for a minute then stir until all lumps have melted.
- Using a spatula spread the warm ganache over the brownie squares to cover.
- Using the piping bag, pipe a white icing swirl starting from the centre and working outwards.
- Once all swirls have been drawn, use a skewer to drag lines of the icing from the centre outwards to form a spiderweb design.
- Allow the ganache to cool and serve.
Recipe by A Better Choice
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