Black velvet brownies

  • Preparation time: 20 minutes, plus cooling
  • Cooking time: 30 minutes
  • Total time: 50 minutes, plus cooling
  • Makes:16

    Ingredients

    100g unsalted butter, diced, plus extra for greasing
    200g dark chocolate, chopped
    125ml stout (such as Guinness)
    125g light brown soft sugar
    75g caster sugar
    3 eggs, lightly beaten
    80g plain flour
    50g rye flour
    25g cocoa powder
    1⁄2 tsp baking powder

    For the cream cheese swirl:

    180g full-fat soft cheese
    50g crème fraîche or soured cream
    100g caster sugar
    1 egg
    1 tsp vanilla bean paste 

    Method

    1. Preheat the oven to 180 ̊C, gas mark 4; grease and line a 20cm x 30cm cake tin with baking parchment. Put the butter, chocolate and stout in a large heatproof bowl. Set over a pan of barely simmering water and melt, stirring frequently, until smooth. Remove from the heat and cool for 3-4 minutes, then stir in the light brown and caster sugars until dissolved. Leave to cool for another 3-4 minutes.

    2. Mix in the eggs, then sift in the flours, cocoa, baking powder and a pinch of salt; stir until smooth. To make the swirl, mix together the soft cheese, crème fraîche (or soured cream) and sugar in another bowl. Beat in the egg and vanilla bean paste until smooth.

    3. Spoon 1⁄2 the chocolate mixture into the tin and spread out to level. Top with 1⁄2 the cream cheese mixture in spoonfuls – do not spread it out. Carefully spoon over the remaining chocolate mixture to cover, then dollop over the remaining cream cheese mixture. Tap the tin on the work surface to level, then swirl a cutlery knife through the tin to marble the 2 mixtures together. Bake for 25 minutes, until set. Leave to cool completely in the tin before cutting into squares to serve, with caramel sauce if liked. 

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