Speculoos Brownies

I have a friend, let's call her Dawn, who absolutely loves those little speculoos biscuits you get with your posh coffee.  When we got samples of speculoos spread in work, she was in seventh heaven and every so often you'd hear a plaintive cry of "get these things away from me".  She didn't really mean it though... A while ago I saw a jar of the spread and bought it with her in mind but then she was in wedding preparation mode and nothing but dust and carrot sticks passed her lips, so the jar stayed in my cupboard.  Until now.  You see, she's now a very happily married pregnant lady and the new cry is "baby wants cake" so I had to oblige! These are very indulgent brownies, made with some exceedingly high quality chocolate, crushed speculoos biscuits and giant dollops of the speculoos
spread on top for added decadence.

If you're in the US or Canada, I believe that these are called Biscoff cookies and I'm sure somebody knows why... feel free to tell me!  Oh, and please use your largest cake tin - a medium roasting tin lined with aluminium foil works perfectly and the foil just peels away from the brownie.

Speculoos Brownies

300g Butter
300g Dark Chocolate, in small pieces
5 large Eggs
450g Caster Sugar
200g Plain Flour
150g Speculoos biscuits, crushed

100g Speculoos spread

Preheat your oven to 180c/Gas Mark 4

Melt the chocolate & butter together - either using a bain marie or in a microwave (I find about 5 minutes on 30% power melts it perfectly). Stir well & allow to cool

Beat the eggs, sugar & vanilla together until thick & the mixture coats the back of a spoon.

Now beat in the cooled chocolate & butter. Finally, fold in the flour & crushed speculoos biscuits and pour the brownie mixture into a foil lined tin.

Drop generous spoonfuls of the speculoos spread on top of the brownie batter and bake for 20-25 minutes until the top has crusted over & is starting to crack. 

Remove from the oven & allow to cool for 15 minutes before lifting the foil out of the tin and transferring to a wire cooling rack.  Dust with icing sugar for extra prettiness and serve slightly warm.  I defy you to just eat one!