Cute Christmas Recipe: Brownies with Santa Hats

These super cute Christmas brownies with strawberry Santa hats are fairly easy to make and soooo scrumptious. If you’re a baker and already good at this sort of thing, the recipe is something like:

1. Make brownies
2. Put whipped cream on them
3. Pop a strawberry on top

“My” brownie recipe below is actually borrowed from a friend, likely borrowed from her mum, and is almost identical to the Hummingbird Bakery Traditional Brownie Recipe, except way way way better. Their recipe is so sweet that your teeth will actually fall out while you’re eating them and your children will never sleep again. This recipe just cuts the sugar by 50g so they taste glorious rather than glycemic.

On the assumption that you are a bit of a kitchen klutz like me, I will elaborate below, including a note on what to do when you get a bit overconfident with your brownie making, your chocolate separates and everything starts looking like it’s going horribly wrong.

Brownie Ingredients:

• 200g chocolate – I usually go for 70%, or a mix of 70% and 85%.
• 175g butter (or margarine)
• 275g caster sugar. Don’t get cocky and try with granulated or demerara sugar. I tried that and while the brownies still tasted amazing, they had a weird texture.
• 130g plain flour (or white gluten-free flour)
• 3 medium eggs – make sure these are room temperature or even warmer. My kitchen is cold so I usually leave them sitting in a bowl of warm (not hot) water while I’m preparing everything else.

Brownie Decorations:

• 250ml whipping cream – you can use double cream, LactoFree Cream, Oatly Whippable Creamy Oat, or Biona whippable coconut cream.
• Strawberries (at least a dozen). Wash well, and cut off the stalks.

Brownie Recipe (adapted from Hummingbird Brownie Recipe)

1. Preheat the oven to 170C.
2. Line a baking tin with greaseproof / wax paper.
3. Boil some water in a pot and then turn it down until it’s barely simmering.
4. Break the chocolate into little pieces and put them in a large-ish heat-proof glass mixing bowl.
5. Add the butter. If the butter is still cold, cut it into small pieces first so it melts more quickly.
6. Balance the bowl on top of the pot of simmering water. Don’t let the base of the bowl touch the boiling water. The idea is to let the heat from the steam slowly melt the chocolate and butter.
7. Wait impatiently for the chocolate and butter to melt completely. You can give it a slow stir now and then. Do not let it boil.
8. Remove the bowl from the heat.
9. Stir in the caster sugar.
10. Stir in the flour.
11. Crack the eggs into a different bowl and then pour them slowly into the mixture. When you start stirring them into the mixture, it will either A) Be completely fine and look glossy and smooth, or B) Suddenly change texture and look stringy and oily.

What to do if your chocolate mixture separates:

Basically what has happened is that the cold from the eggs have caused the fats in the chocolate and butter to separate. It’s not a disaster, but if you bake it while it’s in this state your brownies will be oily and with a crispy top.

So what you need to do is wait and let it gradually warm up again. You can even put the bowl back on top of the pot again for a little while as long as the heat is off or put it in a warmer part of the kitchen. Soon enough the texture will change again and your mixture will look smooth and glossy.

12. Pour or spoon the mixture into the lined baking tin and pop it in the middle of the oven. Let it cook for about 30 minutes. Don’t overcook or it will become rock hard.

13. Let the brownies cool, and then cut into squares.

14. Whip some cream and place a dollop on top of each cooled brownie.

15. Place a strawberry on top of each one, and add another little dollop of cream on top.

Please try making these at home, and share your recipes too!