02 Feb Triple Chocolate Brownie Hearts

These Triple Chocolate Brownie Hearts are the perfect sweet treat to spoil your loved ones with this Valentine’s Day. Not only are they absolutely delicious (I’ve yet to find anyone who can stop at just one!), the recipe is easy enough to make with the kids – they’ll simply love decorating them!
This is my go-to brownie recipe – soft and fudgy, with a rich cocoa flavour. For a little extra indulgence I’ve added white, milk and dark chocolate chunks too. Because why not?
Creating the pretty heart shapes requires nothing more than a heart-shaped cookie cutter. Admittedly you’ll have a few off-cuts leftover, but if you don’t snack them all in one go, they are delicious crisped up the oven and crumbled over ice cream!

This recipe is available as a Baking Box.

Chocolate Brownie Hearts

Makes about 9 brownies

For the brownies: 
180g salted butter
300g brown sugar (1½ cups)
10ml vanilla essence (2 tsp)
3 large eggs
140g flour (1 cup)
55g cocoa (½ cup)
50g white chocolate
50g milk chocolate
50g dark chocolate

To decorate:
80g white chocolate 
red powder food colouring*
pink powder food colouring*
sprinkles

Directions:

• Preheat your oven to 170°C. Grease and line a 20cm x 20cm square baking tin with baking paper, leaving the edges long so that its easy to pull out later.
• Melt the butter and cool to room temperature. Add the brown sugar and vanilla essence, and mix well. 
• Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
• Stir the flour and cocoa together, then gradually mix in to the batter until there are no streaks of flour visible. Roughly chop the chocolate into chunks and stir into the brownie batter.
• Pour into the prepared tin and smooth the top. Bake the brownies for about 30 – 35 minutes, or until the centre is fudgy and soft but cooked through. 
• Allow to cool in the tin for 15 minutes, then lift out using the baking paper edges. Leave to cool completely (if the brownies are still warm they will fall apart when cut).
• Place the brownies face up onto a board. Use a heart cookie cutter (approx 6.5cm x 6.5cm) to cut out heart shapes. Set aside. Reserve the off-cuts to snack on or sprinkle over ice cream!
• Place the white chocolate into a heatproof plastic bowl and microwave on defrost/low heat for 20 seconds. Stir well then heat for a further 20 seconds. Repeat until the chocolate is melted and smooth. Divide between two bowls and colour one pink and one red using the powder food colouring.
• Add each of the chocolates to a piping bag. Snip off the end and drizzle the chocolate over the brownie hearts in a zigzag pattern. Decorate with sprinkles before the chocolate sets.
• Store the brownies in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
  *NOTE: Powdered food colouring is available from baking stores. Liquid food colouring will cause the chocolate to split.