Heart-Shaped Brownies | Recipe

For the raspberry compote, place the frozen raspberries into a medium-sized saucepan and sprinkle over the sugar and cornflour.

Place on the hob over medium to high heat and bring to the boil. This will take around 5-8 minutes. Keep stirring with a heatproof spatula or wooden spoon to prevent the mixture from sticking and burning. It will start to turn thick.

Once thick, remove from the heat and allow to cool before using. As it cools, it will thicken up even more and turn into a jellified sauce. Store in a sealed container in the fridge until you're ready to use it.

For the brownie, preheat the oven to 180 °C fan, and line the square baking tin with grease-proof paper.

Then make the flax eggs. Place ground flaxseed into a small bowl and add the water. Stir to combine then set aside to thicken. This will take around 10 minutes.

In a large mixing bowl, add in the dairy-free butter or margarine, both sugars and flax egg. Whisk to combine until light in colour.

Add in the cocoa powder, baking powder and flour. Mix to form a thick brownie batter.

Spoon the batter into the lined tin and spread out as flat as possible. Smooth out using the back of a spoon or offset spatula.

Make holes in the brownie batter with the end of a wooden spoon. Place the raspberry compote into a piping bag and pipe the compote into the holes. Level off with an offset spatula.

Place the tin into the oven and bake for around 30 minutes. You will know its done when you put a skewer or tooth pick down the centre and it comes out just clean.

When the brownie is ready, remove from the oven and allow to cool. Cut out the heart shapes whilst it's still slightly warm. Using an 3 inch heart cookie cutter, cut out 9 hearts from the brownie and place onto greaseproof paper. The leftovers can be stored in a sealed container in the fridge for snacking.

For the chocolate ganache, place the dairy-free cream into a medium-sized saucepan, and heat on medium until it comes to a low boil.

Place the cooking chocolate into a heatproof bowl and pour over the hot cream. Allow to sit for a few minutes then stir together. The cream will melt the chocolate.

Balance a brownie heart on a fork, and using a spoon, pour the ganache over the brownie, allowing any excess ganache to drip back into the bowl. Don't try to dunk the brownies as they will crumble, you want to be very careful. Repeat for all brownies. Place them into the freezer for 5 minutes or fridge for 20 minutes to allow the ganache to set.

For the decoration, cut a raspberry in half and add one half onto the ganache and fill the middle of the berry with some of the raspberry compote. Finish with a sprinkling of sea salt (optional). You could even add a sprinkling of freeze-dried raspberries! Serve with a drizzle of cream, ice cream or enjoy just as they are.