Chocolate Orange Brownies

It's never once crossed my mind to make brownies with anything other than plain dark chocolate. But when I was pondering in the supermarket yesterday, a bar of dark chocolate flavoured with orange caught my eye. And then, slowly, an incredibly obvious idea started forming. I could make brownies with flavoured chocolate. And then the brownies would have that flavour!

I know. Give the girl a prize.

The idea started buzzing in my head, and it wouldn't go away. So I picked up the chocolate, an orange to make the brownies pretty and a bottle of Cointreau to give them a kick. I then sliced the orange and boiled it up with some sugar, water and a healthy glug of Cointreau.

Once most of the liquid had evaporated, I whipped out the slice, lay them out to cool on a rack and got on with making the brownie mix. Once that was finished, I lay the orange slices on the top of the brownie mix and popped it in the oven. It really couldn't be simpler.

Of course, the boozy orange slices aren't necessary, but I like how chewy they are and I love how they look. You could choose to boil them just in sugar and water, or you could leave them out altogether. I've used the Hummingbird Bakery recipe for brownies, which I've detailed below and is my absolute go to, and I've explained how I went about candying the orange slices.

Candied Orange Slices
1 Orange
75g Sugar
Water 
Cointreau 

1. Slice the orange into slices about half an inch thick

2. Put in a small non stick pan and cover in water and Cointreau. How much of each you put in is up to you, just make sure the orange slices are quite well covered.

3. Add the sugar and bring to the boil, occasionally flipping the orange slices.

4. When the liquid has reached a thick (but still runny!) syrup, pull out the orange slices and leave to cool.

Chocolate Orange Brownies
200g Orange Flavoured Dark Chocolate (it has to be dark chocolate, milk chocolate won't work because of the higher fat content)
175g Unsalted Butter
325g Caster Sugar
130g Plain Flour
3 Eggs

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C and line the brownie tin
2. Melt the chocolate and the butter together, then stir in the sugar.
3. Fold in the flour, then finally add in the eggs, one at a time.
4. Bake for around 35 minutes, until a knife comes out mostly clean, but still with a little bit of chocolate goop on it. That way, your brownies will hold their shape, but will be lovely and gooey on the inside.

P.S. Sorry about the date stamps on the photos. I borrowed a camera!