Halloween brownies with chocolate ganache

Name: Halloween brownies with chocolate ganache
Cook time: 1 h 30 min
Yield: 9 large pieces or 12 small pieces
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 110g dark chocolate; 180g unsalted butter, cut into six pieces; 200g caster sugar; 1 tsp vanilla extract; 3 large eggs, at room temperature; 125g plain flour; ¼ tsp fine sea salt

Helen Goh

October 27, 2023

Not too dark and not too rich, these spooky brownies are just-right.William Meppem

easyTime:1-2 hoursMakes:9 large pieces or 12 small pieces

My children served as critical judges when I was testing Halloween bakes and this was the one they really got their teeth stuck into – literally and figuratively. The winner was declared neither too dark nor too rich – an impossibility in some people’s minds, but we wanted a Goldilocks version that could handle being enrobed in chocolate ganache, all the better to attach those Halloween sweets. Serve as a whole slab to be sliced at the table, or cut into neat squares and decorate individually to give away as treats.

Ingredients

110g dark chocolate
180g unsalted butter, cut into six pieces
200g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 large eggs, at room temperature
125g plain flour
¼ tsp fine sea salt

FOR THE CHOCOLATE GANACHE

150g dark chocolate buttons
100g pure or thickened cream

Method

Step 1
Preheat the oven to 175C fan-forced (195C conventional). Lightly grease and line a 20cm-square baking pan with parchment paper, allowing a generous overhang on the sides to act as a sling for removing the brownie later.
Step 2
Melt the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl placed over the top of a pan of barely simmering water (make sure the bottom of the bowl doesn’t touch the water). Stir occasionally with a whisk and remove from heat when the chocolate and butter have melted. Allow to cool for 5 minutes, then add the sugar and whisk gently for about 30 seconds; you want to combine the ingredients rather than aerate the mixture, so don’t be too vigorous. Add the vanilla extract, then one at a time the eggs, again whisking gently for about 15 seconds after each addition.
Step 3
Sift the flour and salt directly into the bowl, and fold through with the whisk until fully incorporated.
Step 4
Scrape the batter into the prepared pan, and place on the centre rack of the preheated oven and bake for about 25 minutes; at the end of that time, a skewer inserted into the centre of the brownie should come out with just a few moist crumbs attached. Place the pan on a wire rack to cool for one hour.
Step 5
For the ganache, place the chocolate in a medium heatproof bowl. Pour the cream into a small saucepan over medium heat. When bubbles form around the edge of the pan, swirl it so the cream is evenly heated, then pour the hot cream over the chocolate. Let sit for a minute, then stir until smooth.
Step 6
Spoon the warm chocolate ganache over the cooled brownie in the pan and use a small spatula to spread it into an even layer. Allow the ganache to sit for about 10 minutes, then decorate as desired for a slab cake. Let the sweets or decoration set on the brownie, then lift the brownie out of the pan using the parchment paper overhang as handles. Slice into squares.
Step 7
Alternatively, place the brownie in the fridge for about 30 minutes after spreading with the ganache, then slice into squares and decorate each piece as desired.

Halloween decorating ideas

Scatter Halloween sweets on top, either whole or chopped up.
Place a meringue ghost on top of each square (buy meringue kisses and draw on eyes and mouth with edible black-ink pen).
Pipe thick, criss-cross lines of white chocolate on each square to resemble bandages and dot with eyes to suggest mummies.
Place one eyeball candy on each square and pipe chocolate Frankenstein stitches.