Cranberry-pistachio Brownies

This is a recipe for those of us lucky enough not to be on a diet.

First, take some plain chocolate ... 300g to be precise and interestingly enough, it doesn't have to have a high cocoa solid content. You know how most choc recipes stipulate 70% or higher? Here apparently, the texture of the brownies would become crumbly as opposed to moist so about 50% is just fine.

we get such fabulous pistachios here in Turkey

And add some pistachios and dried cranberries. 

How do you like these ingredients? I have used them before in cranberry and pistachio cookies so here they are reappearing in brownie guise. 

Do you tend to associate them with snow and Christmas? Ah I suspected as much! But not as much as other dried fruits like currants, raisins, and nuts eg walnuts and almonds, right? 

So there is still a little window of opportunity in which to make these delicious squidgy brownies because this is what they are: quite the moistest, softest and the ultimate in chocolate fixes! And I would say they are ideal for cooler days, days like today in fact, so why don't you have a baking session and try them out?

cranberry-pistachio brownies just waiting for their sprinkling of icing sugar on top

Actually I first made them in November and now I have just made them again. I was invited to a wonderful Women's Day celebration a few nights ago, you see. It was potluck so I thought I would make these brownies again and see if they really were as squidgy as I remembered.

The answer is: YES THEY ARE!

Not that I tasted them, I hasten to add. TT and I are still on our modified Dukan and have lost approx 5kg/ten and a half pounds each, so I am not about to jeopardise that! But I asked my neighbour at the table what she thought and she passed on the verdict: just yummy!

So here is the recipe for Cranberry-pistachio Brownies

 from BBC Good Food magazine: 

 'One for the cake tin - anytime treats for all the family' 

For friends and family alike, I would say:

Ingredients

200g/8oz butter, diced, plus extra for greasing

2x150g bars plain chocolate (about 50% cocoa solids is fine)

280g/10oz light muscovado sugar (in Turkey, mix a little üzüm pekmezi with regular white toz şeker)

4 tbsp cranberry juice or milk

4 medium eggs (remember to take them out of the fridge beforehand)

200g/8oz plain flour

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon/toz tarçin

75-80g dried cranberries/yaban mersini
100g/4oz pistachios/fıstık, sliced

icing sugar to dust, optional

Method

• Pre-heat oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4.
• Butter a non-stick baking tin (about 31 x 17 x 3.5cm) or line the base if you prefer. (I did prefer as I knew from my previous experience that they were going to be squidgy!)
• Break the chocolate into a saucepan, add the butter, sugar and juice or milk, then warm gently, stirring frequently until melted and evenly mixed. Allow to cool slightly, then beat in the eggs one at a time.

adding the butter, sugar and milk to the chocolate

• Fold in the flour, cinnamon and cranberries.

mixing it all in

folding in the cranberries

• Spread half the mixture into the prepared tin, scatter over the nuts, then gently spread the rest of the mixture on top.

here are the pistachios spread over half the chocolate mixture

• Bake for 30 minutes. (I added 10 minutes more).The brownies are ready when the mixture is springy at the edges but with a slight 'give' in the centre - and a skewer inserted into the centre should still have some mixture sticking to it.
• Cut into squares while warm.

• Sprinkle with icing sugar.

cranberry-pistachio brownies

• Will keep in an airtight container for up to a week.

Afiyet olsun!

I recommend making these brownies one day in advance as they taste even better the day after they're made!