Anita comes back to Oxford tomorrow, so I thought I'd bake her something to welcome her back. I think I've done cookies for too many occasions already this year, so I thought I'd try doing something different and slightly more elaborate. Time to give brownies a go methinks!
Chocolate and Nut BrowniesIngredients- 25g Hazelnuts, very roughly chopped
- 25g Almonds, very roughly chopped
- 60g Caster sugar
- 110g Plain chocolate (50% cocoa)
- 125g Better quality plain chocolate (72% cocoa), roughly chopped
- 110g Butter
- 110g Plain flour
- 210g Soft brown sugar
- 2 Eggs, beaten
- 1 tsp Vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp Baking powder (I didn't actually have baking powder, so I used a roughly 2:1 ratio cream of tartar and bicarbonate of soda mixture)
Method- Dissolve the caster sugar in a little hot water and heat in a saucepan to ~160C (This is above the Hard Crack stage but below Caramel - I think if you dare, heating it all the way to Caramel will give a better result, but I really didn't fancy overheating it and having to start again) and then remove from the heat.
- Stir in the chopped nuts and set aside.
- Melt the 50% cocoa chocolate and butter in a double boiler.
- Remove from the heat and sift in the flour, brown sugar and baking powder.
- Once cool enough, beat in the eggs and vanilla extract.
- Stir in the chopped chocolate and the caramelised nuts.
- Pour into two greased sandwich cake tins and bake at 180C/Gas Mark 4 for ~25 mins.
- Allow to cool for 10 minutes before removing from the tin.
Here they are straight from the oven:
And a photo taken without flash:
I think they look pretty darned good personally! As I removed them from the tin, I snaffled a little bit of the dough that had stuck to the base and had a sneaky taste too - the mixture is really, really good! I think the brown sugar lends a really nice depth to the flavour and it is rather chocolatey too, which I gather is the main point of brownies (though I must confess, I've never really understood why people like them quite as much as they seem to). Anyway, hopefully the nuts will work too and hopefully Anita will like them!