120 g Unsalted butter; cut into
-chunks
120 g Dark chocolate, about 70%;
-broken into pieces
120 g Caster sugar
100 g Light muscovado sugar
1/2 ts Vanilla extract
2 Eggs
130 g Plain flour
1/2 ts Orange zest; finely grated
1 ts Ground star anise
1 pn Salt; generous
Use a coffee grinder or pestle and mortar to grind whole star anise
into a fine powder.
Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/gas mark 6. Butter a 20 cm square
brownie tin and line the bottom and two sides with a strip of baking
parchment that's long enough to hang over the sides (to make it
easier to lift the brownie out of the tin).
In a heatproof bowl over a pan of barely simmering water, melt the
butter and chocolate, and stir until smooth. Add the sugars, leave
for a couple of minutes, then add the vanilla and beat well. Add the
eggs one by one, beating well after each addition. Stir in the flour,
orange zest, star anise and salt.
Pour the mix into the tin, smooth and bake for 20 minutes, until the
top is crackled and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out
with a few moist crumbs clinging to it. Plunge the base of the tin
into a bowl of iced water to stop it cooking, then leave to cool in
the tin for 30 minutes, lift out and finish cooling on a rack.
