Christmas brownies (vegan)

Step 1

Preheat the oven to 180° C / 355° F. Line a square 20 cm / 8 inch tin with baking paper.

Step 2

Place ground flax in a large mixing bowl with 60 ml / ¼ cup of plant milk and set aside for 20 minutes.

Step 3

Melt broken up chocolate and vegan butter in a bowl suspended over a pot of barely simmering water. Allow them to melt slowly, switch the heat off when most of the chocolate has melted. Stir gently to combine at the end.

Step 4

Add both sugars to the activated flax and whisk with an electric whisk for 2 minutes - until the mixture becomes bubbly and thick - see photo above.

Step 5

Add alcohol and using a spatula, gently fold warm (not cooled) chocolate mixture into the flax-sugar mixture.

Step 6

Place a sieve over the bowl and sift in dry ingredients in three batches whilst gently folding with a spatula. Keep on folding until there is no dry pockets left but no more than that.

Step 7

Break half of the ginger breads with your hands and add them, together with chopped ginger, to the batter. Fold in gently.

Step 8

Transfer the batter into the baking tin, spread to the edges with a spatula and top with the remaining gingerbreads.

Step 9

Bake for 22 minutes - the brownies should have a bit of a wobble when being taken out of the oven.

Step 10

Cool completely and then place in the fridge for a few hours for the brownies to firm up and become fudgy.

Step 11

Optionally, decorate gingerbread with a simple sugar icing (see below).

Step 12

Combine icing sugar and liquid in a small bowl, transfer to a piping bag with a tiny nozzle.