EASTER EGG BROWNIES

Fudgy, deeply chocolatey with the added bonus of sweet mini eggs, these Easter brownies are a sweet treat.

We used free-range eggs from Havensfield Happy Hens in this recipe. With flocks in Norfolk and Suffolk, the company picked up Compassion In World Farming's Good Egg award recently. They're obviously doing a cracking good job!

Ingredients:

100g butter

200g 70% dark chocolate, chopped

4 eggs, preferably free range

150g caster sugar

100g plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

30g unsweetened cocoa powder

About 175g candy-coated mini eggs

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4 and line a 22cm square brownie tin with baking or silicone paper.

Melt the butter and chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering water, making sure the base of the bowl doesn't touch the water. Take off the heat and cool to room temperature.

Beat the eggs and sugar in a bowl until doubled in size. If you lift the whisks out of the mixture you should be able to see ribbons on the surface as it drips back into the bowl.

When the chocolate is cool enough, pour it into the eggs. It will sink to the bottom, so using a rubber spatula, gently scoop it up and mix it into the eggs with a figure of eight motion. Try not to knock all the air out.

Sieve the flour, cocoa and baking powder into the bowl and mix in again using the same gentle figure of eight movement, then pour the mixture into the lined tin.

Gently crack about half of a mini eggs with a rolling pin. Put half of the cracked eggs and half the whole ones on top of the brownie mix. They will sink in so keep the rest to decorate the brownie later.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, until the top is shiny and cracked but the inside is still wobbly. Remove from the oven, and while it's still warm, arrange the remaining mini eggs on the top, pressing some of them gently into the dips.

Allow to cool completely before removing from the tin and cutting into squares.