Baking Hazelnut Brownies - Celebrating an Ethical Christmas with Oxfam

Today I'm sharing a delicious Hazelnut Brownie recipe. It's perfect for this time of year, it can be wrapped and given as gifts and the kids love making it! We are also using some fair trade products from Oxfam!

First I want to share a little about Oxfam. Oxfam represents 143 fair trade partners in 47 countries around the world, Oxfam’s shops provide fair and ethical products online and across 13 stores in Australia. If one in four Australians purchased $10 worth of goods with Oxfam, consumers would contribute more than $57 million towards the fight against poverty! By choosing to buy ethically, we can make a difference!

Oxfam Australia’s General Manager of Trading Julia Sumner said: “By choosing to shop with Oxfam, you’re not only getting a uniquely beautiful handmade product with a unique story behind it, you are also joining Oxfam’s global movement towards calling for an end to exploitation and unfair work conditions.

“Fair trade empowers disadvantaged communities by paying them stable prices for their work, helping them to gain the skills they need to develop their business, and giving them access to world markets.”

Oxfam Shop is Australia's only retail organisation registered as a Fair Trade. I love walking into Oxfam stores, all year round we love their world music CDs, baskets and children's toys.

Back to the brownies - both Caspar and Otis wanted to help, I can't blame them. There was a lot of spoon licking! Did I mention how delicious this is! Now for the recipe.

Chocolate Hazelnut Brownies

Ingredients:

1 jar (400g) Oxfam fair Hazelnut Spread
50g butter, melted
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
½ cup (90g) brown sugar
1 cup (150g) plain flour
½ teaspoon baking powder

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line the base and sides of a 20cm square cake tin with baking paper. Combine the jar of hazelnut spread and melted butter in a large bowl using a whisk. Add the eggs one at a time, beating between each addition, until a smooth paste forms. Stir in the vanilla essence and brown sugar. Sift over the flour and baking powder and fold to combine. Pour the mixture into the lined cake tin, spreading out the mixture evenly using a spatula. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the brownies spring back when lightly touched but a skewer inserted into the centre comes out slightly fudgy. Cool the brownies completely in the tin before lifting out onto a serving plate. Cut into rectangles to serve.

Makes 12 brownies.

Recipe by Elizabeth Alvaro via Oxfam.

After baking, I barely had a moment to slice the brownies before the boys wanted to eat them. I sliced them and put them out for a gorgeous Christmasy afternoon tea with friends.