I had some candy canes leftover and mint goes perfectly with chocolate so I have combined them with my usual brownie recipe. They add a lovely delicate minty flavour and beautiful decoration.

I just used nine candy canes as that was the amount of slices I wanted to cut my brownies into, more candy canes would give a more intense minty flavour and less candy canes a milder flavour.

You will need:

• 135g Dark Chocolate (broken into squares)
• 135g Butter
• 1tsp Vanilla extract
• 2 Eggs
• 225g Caster Sugar
• 135g Plain Flour
• 1/2tsp baking Powder
• 9 Candy Canes (I broke off the long shaft and crushed these ends to add to the brownie mixture, leaving the hooked end for decoration.)

Method:

• Grease and line a square 20cm tin and preheat the oven to 180degrees
• Melt the chocolate and the butter together over a Bain Marie (heat proof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water); take care not to overheat the chocolate and butter.
• Once the butter and chocolate has melted, remove from the heat and add the vanilla extract and stir well, put to one side and allow to cool slightly.
• Meanwhile, whisk the eggs and sugar together until the sugar has dissolved in the eggs and they look thick and creamy.
• Gently fold the chocolate mixture into the eggs and sugar making sure it is well incorporated.
• Sift in the flour and baking powder and fold though to ensure there are no lumps of flour.
• Fold in brushed candy cane ends making sure they are well distributed throughout the mixture.
• Pour into the prepared tin and level the top.
• Bake for about 30 mins.
• Once out of the oven arrange the nine candy cane hooks over the brownie so each one would be in the middle of a slice when cut.
• I gently pushed the ends of the candy canes into the brownie slightly.
• Allow to cool completely in the tin before removing.
• Cut into squares and enjoy!