Full disclosure, I’ve never made brownies before. If I need them for a party, I usually ask my friend Val to make them as hers are quite delicious. Anyway, I wanted to take some to London for my daughter so I consulted half a dozen different recipes and the contents of my larder and this was the result. Turns out, these are pretty delicious too! I find that plain chocolate brownies can be a bit rich so the addition of a few chopped walnuts and the dried cranberries add some welcome texture and sourness. I cut this into twelve pieces but you could cut smaller bite-sized pieces and serve them as a sweet Christmas party canapé.

• Makes 12
• 115g dark chocolate, broken into small pieces
• 115g unsalted butter, cubed
• 225g golden caster sugar
• 2 large eggs and 1 tsp vanilla essence, beaten
• 115g plain flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 80g dried cranberries
• 40g walnuts, chopped
• a pinch of salt

To make…

• Heat the oven to 180C.
• Grease and line a shallow 18x28cm baking tin.
• Put the chocolate and the butter into a heatproof bowl. Place the bowl over, but not touching, a saucepan of gently steaming water.
• Once the chocolate and butter have melted, whisk them together and take the bowl off the heat.
• Weigh out all the dry ingredients and combine them evenly. Fold them and the beaten egg and vanilla mixture into the melted chocolate and butter.
• Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake in the centre of the oven for 30 minutes or until the centre is firm to the touch. Don’t be tempted to over-bake them or they won’t develop the right dense, chewy texture that differentiates a brownie from a piece of dry cake.
• Remove the cake from the oven and allow to cool in the tin on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Turn the cake out onto a clean cutting board, peel off the baking parchment and cut into 12 equal pieces. Transfer the individual brownies back onto the wire rack and allow to cool completely.
• Once completely cool, store in a tin lined with baking parchment or wrap in foil. They taste much better the next day – the top should have a shiny crust and the middle should be fudge-like.

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