Take your festive brownie game to the next level with these decadent dark chocolate brownies spiked with boozy mincemeat and a hidden shortcrust pastry bottom.
Festive baking
One of the highlights of advent is spending hours in the kitchen baking lots of festive treats! As a child I baked the classics like mince pies and ginger bread men. But as an adult my festive baking has become more and more elaborate! And one of the best things about being a food blogger is that you can justifiably come up with some pretty outlandish recipes - because who wants just another bog standard mince pie recipe right?
Because of my insatiable appetite for festive treats and my inability to keep things simple, you get this recipe for Mine Pie Brownies!
What is a mince pie brownie?
I've seen a few different versions of this recipe - some are shortcrust pastry cases filled with a brownie mix, others are brownies with whole mince pies (pastry and all) inside!
For my spin on the mince pie brownie recipe, I line the base of the pan with a classic shortcrust pastry, I then top this with a rich dark chocolate brownie batter, adding in heaped spoon full of mincemeat throughout the batter.
When baked you then get a lovely crisp base, soft and squishy brownie with bursts of boozy, fruity mincemeat. It's the ultimate brownie and mince pie mash up!
Out of all the versions I've seen I reckon this is the best. You get a good pastry to brownie ratio and they are easy to eat with your hands (which is a key requirement of mine).
Pro tip
Go the extra mile and make the mincemeat from scratch. Check out my simple mincemeat recipe here.
Upgrade your mince pie brownie
If these brownies weren't already good enough, I definitely recommend serving them warm out of the oven with a big spoonful of brandy butter!
You can thank me later...
The recipe
Mince Pie Brownies
Ingredients
- 200 grams shortcrust pastry
- 200 grams butter unsalted
- 200 grams dark chocolate
- 200 grams dark brown sugar
- 4 medium eggs
- 130 grams plain flour
- 50 grams cocoa powder
- 12 teaspoon mincemeat
- 1 tablespoon icing sugar
Instructions
- Begin by pre-heating your oven to gas mark 4 or 180C.
- Line a 9" square tin with grease proof paper. (See notes).
- Roll out the pastry until its half a centimetre thick.
- Cut the pastry into a 9" square and lay in the bottom of the tin.
- Pour baking beans on top of the pastry and bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes or until the pastry is cooked through.
- Melt the butter in a pan along with the chocolate and sugar.
- Once the butter and sugar has melted completely, allow to cool slightly.
- Once it has cooled, whisk in the eggs, one at a time.
- Next, fold through the flour and cocoa.
- Pour half of the brownie batter into the tin, on top of the pastry base.
- Spoon the mincemeat evenly across the brownie batter before pouring over the rest of the brownie batter.
- Bake in the centre of the oven for 30-15 minutes or until a crust has formed on top of the brownies but they are bouncy to the touch.
- Allow the brownies to cool completely before dusting with icing sugar.
Notes
Disposable brownie baking trays.
If you bake brownies as often as I do, you might want to think about bulk buying square foil trays. They are ideal for baking brownies and they are good for transporting them too. (I often make brownies for bake sales at work so these are ideal!)Nutrition
More Christmas confectionery
If you like these mince pie brownies then you will love these other festive treats!
More Christmas recipes
For the full range of Christmas recipes on the blog check out the Christmas recipe archive.
Kavita Favelle says
Oooh I say, these do look good. I like your version a lot, with the pastry base and then the spoons ful of mince meat within the brownie. They look gorgeous!
Becca @ Amuse Your Bouche says
Oh my god yummmm! I'm actually not the biggest fan of mince pies on their own, I'm not sure why... but these look amazing!! Chocolate improves everything 🙂 Such a fun idea!
Heidi Roberts says
I have been craving brownies lately - think these just might do the trick!
Stephanie Jones says
Definitely will be trying these asap! Do you think the brownies would work without the shortcrust base?
Emma Walton says
Yes they definitely do so.feel free to skip that step 🙂 enjoy!