Choc Brownie Christmas Trees

Hello Old Friend, its been awhile...

Well, after Mr and Mrs Pizzaman moved to the other side of the country (yes, literally) Friday night desserts slowly died away... and so did this blog. However, as I now find myself with the next 9 months or so off work whilst I learn the ins and outs of this whole 'parenting' thing, I hereby pledge to breathe life back into Mrs Pink's Delectable Desserts.

It shouldn't surprise you to know that while my blogging has been on a hiatus for the last couple of years (wow, has it been THAT long?!), my dessert making has not. I have a back log of desserts that I have been making and photographing and just never getting around to posting, so I'll be trying to work through them in the coming weeks/months. Only problem is that its been so long that I can't always remember which recipe I used to match the photos, so we'll see how we go...

First up, as the festive season sneaks up on us once again, is a treat I had lots of fun making last year - Chocolate Brownie Christmas  Trees...

It doesn't really matter what brownie recipe you use as this one is more about the decorating of brownies to make them a Christmas-y treat. 

Ingredients
Brownies
 - 150g butter
 - 300g dark cooking chocolate (chopped)
 - 1 1/2 cups (330g) firmly packed brown sugar
 - 3 eggs
 - 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
 - 3/4 cup plain flour
 - 3/4 cup (140g) dark Choc Bits
 - 1/2 cup sour cream
 - 3/4 cup (110g) macadamias, toasted, chopped coarsely
 - 1 tablespoon cocoa powder

Decorations
 - icing sugar (1 cup or so)
 - softened butter (1 tablespoon or so)
 - milk (dash of)
 - green food colouring
 - Smarties
 - Candy Canes (a couple of boxes)

Method

Step 1: Preheat oven to moderate (around 180 degrees C), and lightly grease and line a 19 cm x 29cm rectangular slice pan, lining with baking paper so that 2cm of paper extends above the pan on the long sides of the rectangle.

Step 2: Melt the butter in a medium saucepan, add chocolate and stir over low heat without boiling until the mixture is smooth.

Step 3: Stir in sugar then transfer to a large bowl and allow to cool until it is just warm.

Step 4: Stir in eggs one at a time

Step 5: Stir in extract, flour, Choc Bits, cream and nuts.

Step 6: Spread mixture into prepared pan and bake for about 40 minutes. Cover pan with foil and bake for a further 20 minutes.

Step 7: Cool in pan; turn top-side up onto a wire rack.

Step 8: This is where the fun begins: cut brownie slice into triangles - to do this I cut the slice into thirds long ways so I had three long thin rectangles and then cut the rectangles into a zig-zag pattern. This left an awkward half-triangle shape at each end, but heck you've got to have some scraps to snack on while you decorate the trees! (this gave me about 14 trees)

Step 9: Grab the Candy Canes and snap off the 'hook' end so that they are straight pieces. I discovered the hard way that you want the stems to be about 4cm long; much longer than that and you'll either break the brownie when you insert it or it'll look ridiculously long, and much shorter and it won't stay in place.

Once you've got your stems you need to delicately insert them into the base of the 'tree'. Now don't make the mistake that I made and just assume the candy canes can be jammed in there... You need to make a bit of a whole first to pave the way. Insert a skewer into the base of the triangle and move it around in a circular motion so that a whole forms. Only then should you attempt to insert the candy canes.

Step 10: Mix up some icing by creaming the butter, stirring through the icing sugar and adding just enough milk to keep it from being too hard. Add a couple drops of the food colouring of your choice.

Use a piping bag to pipe zig-zags onto the trees, pressing the Smarties onto the icing as you go. When the icing hardens the Smarties should be lightly 'glued' in place.

Just had a thought - you could use an oval shaped cookie cutter and make Easter Egg Brownies as well... Hmmm, now I just have to remember that in about 4 months time!