Raspberry Brownies

Jul 6, 2018

It’s Mid-Summer and I’ve become obsessed with raspberries.  I think I need to check myself into a 12 step raspberry recovery programme.  It’s the delicate fragrancy of their flavour that gets to me.  And probably it’s a lot to do with me treating myself recently to a bottle of Medicine Flower Raspberry Extract.   The Medicine Flower Extracts are a gorgeous range of flavourings.  They are pretty expensive at around £20 for a 15ml bottle but they take whatever cake or chocolate you’re making and transport it into another realm of exquisiteness. Plus a little goes a very long way.  Here's one of the cakes I’ve made recently using this magic potion.  It's – a squidgey dark chocolate gooey sponge, combined with the light, Summery flavours of raspberries.  Yin and Yang in cake form.

If you don’t feel the urge to ruin yourself financially, buying a load of expensive flavourings – there are other brands available - for example Lakeland do a range of some more unusual food flavourings such as raspberry.

3 eggs
200g no added sugar plain chocolate
150g butter (or coconut oil)
1 tbsp xylitol
150g ground almonds
1 tsp baking powder
50g chopped walnuts
100g frozen raspberries
Fresh raspberries for topping
10g pistachio nuts
1 tsp vanilla essence
16 or 7 drops of Medicine Flower Raspberry extract*
Pinch of salt

Whizz the eggs with xylitol, vanilla and raspberry essence.
Melt the butter and chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering water.
Add slowly to the egg mix.
Stir in the ground almonds and baking powder.
Add pinch of salt.
Add chopped walnuts and frozen raspberries.
Spoon the batter into a 23cm cake tin lined with baking paper.  Add the fresh raspberries to the top of the cake.
Bake at Gas Mark 4 – 350F/180C for 25-30 minutes until just cooked – just a little squidgy still in the middle.  Scatter chopped pistachio nuts on the top.
Leave the cake to cool in the tin.  Then keep in the fridge

*Medicine flower extracts can be bought at http://www.rawliving.co.uk/