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EASTER FUN: Masterchef winner Gary Maclean on how to make Easter egg chocolate brownies

He's been in the kitchen with his son to show the best ways to make lockdown exciting for kids.

Published 10th Apr 2020
Last updated 10th Apr 2020

Masterchef winner Gary Maclean has been showing us the best way to keep the kids amused this Easter weekend while on lockdown.

He won Masterchef: The Professionals back in 2016 and is also an executive chef at City of Glasgow college.

Gary has been in the kitchen baking brownies with his son to keep him amused while the schools remain closed and Easter weekend is upon us.

Gary, who is also Scotland's national chef, said:

"At the minute everybody is stuck at home and I think to be fair the thing that has come out of this is people are talking about food, and everywhere you look people are cooking.

"Everyone's at home so there's an opportunity there to get your kids and family involved in what's going on and what's going on their plate.

"If you've got young kids that you want to get cooking, you've just to chill and relax because they will come and go.

"My two little ones love cooking, but they don't want to do it for hours on end so you've just got to let them come and go and dip in and out as they go about their normal day."

Gary has baked Easter Egg Chocolate Brownies for us - and given us the recipe so you can make them too this weekend.

Easter Egg Chocolate Brownies

150g Chocolate

125g Unsalted butter

150g Caster sugar

2 large Eggs, plus 1 extra egg yolk, lightly beaten

30g S/R Flour

Pinch of salt

30g Cocoa powder

75g Nuts (optional)

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 180˚C, and line a 15cm x 15cm baking tin with baking parchment.
  1. Set a bowl over, but not touching, a pan of simmering water, and add the chocolate, broken into pieces. Allow to melt, stirring occasionally, and then remove from the heat immediately.
  1. Meanwhile, beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
  1. Gradually add the eggs, beating well between each addition to ensure its thoroughly incorporated before pouring in any more.
  1. Gently fold in the melted chocolate with a metal spoon, followed by the sifted flour, salt, cocoa powder and nuts.
  1. Spoon the mixture into the tin, and bake for 30 minutes. Test with a metal skewer; it should come out sticky, but not coated with raw mixture.
  1. If it does, put it back into the oven for another 3 minutes, then test again.
  1. When the brownies are ready, remove the tin from the oven.
  1. Leave to cool for an hour before cutting into squares.

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