Figgy Brownies With Chocolate & Butterscotch Sauce

These chocolate fig brownies are naturally sweet and rich. Speckled with chopped dried figs, drizzled with chocolate sauce and sprinkled with grated chocolate, a scoop of butterscotch ice-cream is all you need to complete the decadent dessert experience.

Yield: Makes 9
Prep Time: 15 mins
Cook Time: 30 mins
Difficulty Level: 3/5

Ingredients

• 250 g soft dried figs
• 400 g dark chocolate (70 per cent cocoa)
• 3 eggs
• ⅔ cup (100 g) self-raising flour
• 3 cups (750 ml) butterscotch ice-cream
• 125 g unsalted butter
• ¾ cup (165 g) caster sugar
• ½ tsp fine sea salt

Steps

Preheat oven to 180 C. Lightly grease a 20 cm square cake pan with butter; line base with baking paper.

02. Remove and discard hard tops from figs; coarsely chop figs. Break chocolate into squares; cut butter into cubes.

03. Place 200 g chocolate, the butter and sugar in a large heatproof bowl over a large saucepan of simmering water (don’t allow bowl to touch the water); stir until melted. Cool. Reserve pan of water.

04. Whisk eggs into chocolate mixture until combined. Fold flour and salt through mixture until just combined; fold in figs until just combined. Pour mixture into cake pan.

Bake for 25 mins or until a wooden skewer inserted in the centre comes out with moist crumbs attached. Leave in pan for 5 mins.

06. Meanwhile, for chocolate sauce, return reserved pan of water to low-medium heat until simmering. Place 150 g of the remaining chocolate in a large heatproof bowl with 1 cup of the ice-cream; place bowl over pan of simmering water, then stir until melted and smooth. Remove bowl from pan. Finely grate remaining chocolate.

07. Cut brownie into nine squares; drizzle with chocolate sauce and sprinkle with grated chocolate. Serve with remaining ice-cream.

TIP

Use vanilla bean or chocolate ice-cream instead of butterscotch ice-cream. Soft juicy figs are just dried figs that are not as hard as traditional dried figs. Serve brownies topped with roasted walnuts, almonds, or hazelnuts.

Photo: bauersyndication.com.au