Macadamia & Cranberry Chocolate Squares

I made these sumptuous squares of chocolatey goodness over the weekend and they were just too good not to share! The original recipe comes from "Ottolenghi - The Cookbook" and I adapted it to use ingredients that I had to hand. In the Ottolenghi version they included chestnuts and dried figs (which sounds utterly delicious!), but I opted for creamy macadamias and tart cranberries as these also taste fantastic with white chocolate. I also used chocolate coated digestives instead of the regular ones just to up the chocolate even more - go big or go home, right?

This is the perfect chocolate treat to make over the festive season - a decadent sweet to serve for tea or at the end of a meal. Your guests will swoon over the crisp chocolate biscuit base topped with fudgy fruit and nut dotted chocolate. I feel giddy just thinking about it. Please, do yourselves a favour and give these a go! 

Cook's note: You could cut these into bars if you prefer, I opted for squares as the mixture is very rich. (That did not stop me from eating several squares during a thirty minute photo shoot - but perhaps you have more willpower than me!)

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MACADAMIA & CRANBERRY CHOCOLATE SQUARES

Makes 24 squares

For the base:

200g chocolate digestive biscuits
100g butter

225g dark chocolate, broken into pieces
150g butter, diced
2 large eggs
1 large egg yolk
45g castor sugar
120g macadamia nuts, roughly chopped
100g dried cranberries, roughly chopped
100g white chocolate, roughly chopped
cocoa powder for dusting

Step 1.) Grease a 25cm x 15cm (or similar) rectangular tin and line the base with baking paper. Place the digestive biscuits in a freezer bag and use a rolling pin to crush them into crumbs. (You could also pulse them in a food processor for a few seconds.)

Step 2.) Tip the biscuits crumbs into a small bowl. Melt the butter, then mix this into the crumbs. Gently press the crumbs onto the base of the tin in an even layer. Set aside in the fridge.

Step 3.) Preheat your oven to 150°C. Place the dark chocolate and butter in a saucepan over a low heat. Stir continuously until the butter and chocolate have almost melted, then remove from the heat and whisk until smooth.

Step 4.) Whisk the eggs, egg yolk and sugar together until pale and thick. Gently fold the chocolate mixture into the egg mix. Add the macadamias, cranberries and white chocolate and fold these in.

Step 5.) Pour the chocolate mixture into the tin. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes. The top should be dry but the middle should still be a bit wobbly. Take the tin out of the oven and leave to cool, then refrigerate for a few hours until the chocolate has set.

Step 6.) Carefully tip the chocolate slab out of the tin. Cut into squares and dust with cocoa powder. Serve at room temperature.