Raspberry-spiked chocolate brownies

I made these for an afternoon tea. It was a very good spread: egg nog and rum, cucumber sandwiches, beetroot sandwiches, celery and carrot sticks, dips, bread, and several delicious varieties of tea.

This was a very easy and relatively quick recipe with very pleasing results. One of the best brownie recipes I've tried to date. Not too attractive in this picture but believe me, they looked GOOD.




200g dark chocolate, chopped
250g butter
1 3/4 cups brown sugar
4 eggs
1 1/3 cups plain flour, sifted
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/3 cup cocoa powder, sifted
1 1/2 cups raspberries, frozen or fresh (you can also sub in blueberries)

Preheat oven to 180 C.

Melt the chocolate and butter. I use the metal bowl over boiling water method, stirring until smooth.

Pour chocolate in a large bowl with eggs and sugar. Stir to combine.

Sift flour, cocoa powder and baking powder into the bowl. Stir to combine.

Pour the batter into a baking tin lined with baking paper. Top with berries.

Bake for 45 minutes or until set. The centre of the brownie will have a very fudgey texture.


From a Donna Hay recipe

Financiers with berries

I baked these for what I expected would be four or five friends dropping by for afternoon tea. In fact ten people showed up. I did the jazz hands of "oh noes!" and apologised for only having one type of cheese and cut the financiers in half and hastily washed some grapes and you know what? It all came good.

Oh, and since people kept asking, a financier is really just a fancy name for a friand.




150g (1.5 cups) almond meal
90g plain flour
240g icing sugar, sifted
1 tsp baking powder
280ml (about 8) egg whites
250g unsalted butter, melted
seasonal berries or other fruit


Preheat the oven to 190C. Lightly grease standard 1/2-cup 12-hole muffin tin with butter.

In large bowl, mix almond meal, flour, icing sugar, baking powder.

Add egg whites a little at a time and whisking well after each addition.

Pour in melted butter and whisk through until just combined.

Spoon mixture into muffin tins until they are almost full.

Gently place berries or fruit pieces on top of each financier.

Bake in oven for 30 minutes or until golden and a skewer comes out clean.

Cool on wire racks.

Makes 12.


From Bourke Street Bakery, by Paul Allam and David McGuinness

Lemon and Passionfruit Tarts

A little dessert experiment cooked up with friends, using a desserts cookbook and whatever ingredients we had to hand. We substituted a lot of ingredients - raw sugar for caster sugar, puff pastry for filo pastry - it worked out fine!



Lemon and Passionfruit Tarts with Berries

60g unsalted butter
90g (1/3 cup) caster sugar
2 eggs
2 tablespoons self-raising flour
60ml (1/4 cupe) lemon juice
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1 passionfruit, pulp removed
3 sheets filo pastry
125g (1 cup) fresh berries


Preheat oven to 180C.

Beat butter and sugar until light and creamy. Add the eggs one at a time. Add the flour, lemon juice, zest and passionfruit pulp, and beat until well combined.

Carefully line muffin tins with pastry. Pour in the lemon mixture and bake for 20-25 minutes or until set.

Serve topped with fresh berries and cream (we used hand-whipped cream, mixed with passionfruit pulp).

Makes 6.