Chocolate Brownies with Tahini & Date

These came about as I have seen more and more recipes for brownies made with tahini. I love tahini and use it all the time in dressings for salads and roasted vegetables, quite apart from the obvious hummus. A little experimenting resulted in this recipe which I think is delicious, really very foolproof and open to interpretation in that you could replace the chocolate chunks with nuts and vary the vanilla flavouring – orange rind would work well, for example.

Makes about 16. You will need a shallow 9″ square tin, lined with baking parchment.

60g dark chocolate chunks (no more than 60% cocoa solids)

175g unsalted butter

100g dark muscovado sugar

175g granulated sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 large eggs

2 tablespoons date syrup

2 tablespoons tahini paste (I use belazu)

80g cocoa powder (I use bournville)

75g ground almonds

50g plain flour (sieved)

Good pinch maldon salt

50g chopped chocolate (White and dark mix is good) or toasted nuts/chopped dates

Pre-heat the oven to about 160c (or aga baking oven)

Melt the chocolate and butter together in a large bowl. Whisk in the sugar until really well blended. Add the vanilla extract. Whisk the eggs well and then blend them into the chocolate mixture. Then whisk in the date syrup and the tahini paste.

Sieve the flour and cocoa powder together and fold into the chocolate mix along with the almonds and salt. Then stir in the chopped chocolate.

Pour the thick batter into your prepared cake tin. Bake for about 25 – 30 minutes until just set. It should be fairly soft but definitely not liquid!

Cool in the tin and then cut into square. Or serve warm with ice cream.