Bramble Brownie Pie.

So the other day you said I didn't ever make kitchen based errors. Well I am here to present you evidence to the contrary. For starters you just have to speak to Dad and I'm sure he'll regale you with tales of our kitchen fall outs. His particular favourite incident involves a bowl of butter and sugar whisking its way onto the floor, spreading itself over quite a distance- there are photos. Of course he is wrong and I am a pleasure to cook along side.

Now see here, yep up there. That is a recent mistake- wowzas it could have been a disaster and almost ended in tears and tantrums but it turned out to be one of those Elvis Costello mistakes; a brilliant one. You see I have a recipe for Bramble Brownies, which is a genius idea because the freshness of the berries really pings next to the richness of the choccychocolateness.

The problem is that every time I follow the recipe the brownies emerge from the oven looking perfect, a crackled top yielding to a hint of squidge underneath. But the cutting of the brownies has always revealed uncooked leaky mixture, which IS oozy and absolutely delish but not really presentable or what can be really labelled a success. So another blackberry season arrives and, another year wiser, out of the oven I pull perfect looking Bramble Brownies. But...here's what happens...I cut, goooooooe, I set aside to deal with later, I SOMEhow flip, upside down onto hob, splat. 

Well as you can imagine I skipped a few heart beats but aaccctually it wasn't as tear inducing as it could have been. The 'mistake' picture up top was actually taken after the flipping incident so you can see that things were really quite salvageable. And how to salvage uncooked, thrown around brownie? Bake again in a pastry case of course. And it is wonderful and totally worth the numerous mistake that led to its discovery. You see, a brilliant mistake. With Love and Cake.

Bramble Brownie Pie

A few notes:

• Of course you could go ahead and just make the brownies without the pastry case and assume that it's just me being a twit. I'd turn the oven down 20ish° and give an extra 15 minutes to bake.
• If everything does end up too runny for your liking, serve in a bowl with pouring cream or ice cream and call is chocolate pudding. Done.
• You don't have to use the blackberries if you don't have any or can't be bothered to go and pick them, just leave them out.
• If you prefer a sweeter brownie you could substitute some of the dark chocolate for milk chocolate, but it's best to keep at least half of the chocolate that you melt dark, so you get that ultra chocolatey taste.
• This pastry is beautifully buttery and melt-in-the-mouthey thanks to the addition of ground almonds and a light hand. What that also means though is that it’s a bit of a bum to roll out because it is so short  and crumbly. What I tend to end up doing is rolling it out to the thickness I want, attempting to line the tin, and then patching up and patting in the leftovers into gaps and tears. So don’t be disheartened it will turn good in the end.

Makes an 18cm pie

You will need

An 18cm round cake tin or pie dish, greased

For the pastry

210g plain flour

50g caster sugar

50g ground almonds

125g butter

1 egg

For the brownie filling

3 eggs

175g caster sugar

175g dark chocolate

150g butter

100g plain flour

225g blackberries

100g chocolate chips or chopped chocolate of your choice

• So let’s get going. First things first make the pastry by popping all the dry ingredients into a food processor and pulse together. Then whiz in the butter followed by the egg and leave trundling around until it comes together to form a dough (you could also do this by rubbing in the butter with your finger tips then mixing in the egg by hand).
• Turn out the dough, pat into a disc and chill in the fridge for at least half an hour.
• When it’s ready roll it out as best you can and line the tin (see note). Pop the tin in the fridge while you get on with the rest of the pie. Preheat the oven to 180°c.
• Now for the filling. Whisk together the eggs and sugar until well combined and a bit more voluminous.
• Then melt the chocolate and butter together gently in a bowl over a pan of simmering water or in a microwave.
• Mix the chocolate mixture into the eggs and then fold in the flour, berries and chocolate.
• Pour the filling into the pastry case and bake for 30 minutes until the pastry is golden and the top of the brownie has a dark crust and doesn't wobble, just gives a little.
• Cool on a wire wrack in the tin for 10 minutes or so, then turn out if you can...though if it's easier feel free to serve out the tin.
• Serve warm or at room temperature with whipped cream. Good luck.