Cranberry, Apricot, Chocolate Brownie

Chocolate, Apricot and Cranberry brownies

(Prep 15/20 mins, cooking 45 mins makes 12, easy peasy)

100 g/4 oz butter, cut into pieces

a quarter of a cup of sugar (optional, this recipe works without sugar too) 

100 g/4 oz chocolate (min 70% cocoa solids) broken into pieces
2 eggs, beaten
2 tsp vanilla extract
100 g/ 4 oz plain wholemeal flour
Finely grated zest of an orange, and the juice
50 g/ 2 oz dried apricots, quartered
50 g /2 oz walnut pieces
50 g /2 oz cranberries

1 Preheat oven 180/ fan 160/ gas 4. Lightly grease a 20 cm /8" square shallow tin and line the base with grease-proof paper.
2 Melt the butter and chocolate together in a bowl set over a pan of gently simmering water
3 Remove from the heat and beat in the sugar eggs and vanilla
4 In a separate bowl mix together the flour orange zest apricots, walnuts and cranberries, then stir them into the wet mix (coating the fruity bits in the flour first means they won't all sink to the bottom) until they're well combined. Stir in the orange juice
5 Pour the mix into the prepared tin, bake until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean and the top is slightly cracked.
6 Leave in the tin to cool slightly before cutting into squares.

It'll keep moist in a tin for a few days.