Alternative Christmas Pudding

Christmas is my favourite time of the year. 

I hope I never stop getting excited by fairy lights, advent calendars and decorating the tree. I can watch Elf, Love Actually and The Santa Clause millions of times and still laugh at every joke even though I know what's coming, and I relish taking a highlighter to the TV guide to plan a suitable television schedule for the holiday period. I eagerly anticipate the arrival of Starbucks' famous red cups and take a photo of the Christmas tree in Covent Garden every time I walk past it, the novelty of seeing it clearly showing no signs of wearing off. You can't talk about Christmas without mentioning the food. Every family I know seems to stock up on nibbles and mince pies and Quality Street in December as if we're heading towards an apocalypse. It's a universally accepted fact that for the few days of Christmas all sense of calorie counting and being good goes totally out of the window, and there's nothing more dangerous to healthy eating than a spot of Christmas baking. 

Since I've been home the oven has been working over time. I started today with a recipe from everyone's favourite supermarket (and general life-saver) Marks and Spencer. It's on their website as a Special Christmas Brownie, but it turned out as more of a dessert so I think it would be the perfect alternative to Christmas Pudding, if you're not really a fan and also a bit of a chocoholic.

Ingredients:
300g dark chocolate, chopped
250g unsalted butter, chopped
5 eggs
400g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
150g plain four
50g cocoa
1⁄2 tsp baking powder
3 tbsp mincemeat

Method:

Heat the oven to 180°c/350°F/ gas 4 (160°c for fan ovens) and grease and line a shallow 20cm x 30cm baking tin, leaving a bit of the paper overhanging the lengths of the tray (this will make it easier to remove the brownies). I LOVE Lakeland's Parchment Lined Foil and would wholeheartedly recommend it: after a spot of origami lining a tin is so much easier than with regular baking parchment.

Start by melting the chocolate and butter and then allow to cool.

Place the eggs, sugar and vanilla in an electric mixer and beat for 3-4 minutes, until pale and fluffy.

Beat in the cooled chocolate mixture.

Sift in the flour, cocoa, baking powder and a pinch of salt, then fold in with a large metal spoon until smooth.

Gently fold in the mincemeat.

Transfer the mixture to the tin and smooth the surface. Bake for 45-50 minutes, or until firm to the touch but still a bit squidgy in the centre.

Let it cool in the tin and then remove.

To serve, allow to cool completely, cut into chunks (how big they are depends on how gluttonous you're feeling…) and sprinkle with a light dusting of icing sugar.

Or, for the ideal alternative to Christmas pudding, heat up and drizzle with lashings of double cream.

Enjoy! Is there anything M&S can't do?! They're very rich and extremely chocolatey so to be honest you only need a tiny piece per portion. As my mum suggested between mouthfuls, this would be an excellent time to try out specialty mincemeats instead of just the normal ones. The extra flavours would be an interesting and welcome addition, and something that I'll definitely look into once the shops start selling them off after Christmas...

I'm putting dissertation reading to one side and am off to finish watching Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince on ITV. Christmas has finally begun!