A tale of two best friends on opposite sides of the world and their quest to cook everything from
Stephanie Alexander's 'The Cook's Companion'

Saturday, May 8, 2010

Chocolate Healing

Walnut Brownies

I was feeling a bit homesick lately, and nothing cures an emotional ailment quite like chocolate. I love the crunch of nuts or chocolate chips in brownies and when I couldn't find any choc chips, I went with walnuts. I have a standard brownie recipe that I always use, but I had never actually tried the recipe from Stephanie, so was keen to give it a go. Boy have I been missing out! These brownies were rich and chocolately, with a nice bitter tang from using cocoa instead of melted chocolate. I prefer to use cocoa, because I hate melting chocolate, but that's because I'm lazy. The walnuts provided a nice crunch to these gooey brownies. I have to admit that I didn't really follow the method for these, but they turned out great. This is now my go-to brownie recipe.

Walnut Brownies (Printable Recipe)
adapted from Stephanie's Double Chocolate Brownies, pg 311

180g butter
100g plain flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
2/3 cup dutch cocoa
1 1/4 cups golden castor sugar (you can use regular castor sugar)
pinch salt
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/2 cups walnuts (you can use any nuts or choc chips)

Preheat oven to 160°C. Line a 20x30cm slice tin with baking paper.

Melt butter in a saucepan over low heat. Sift flour, baking powder and cocoa into a mixing bowl. Add the sugar and salt. Stir to evenly distribute cocoa. Stir in cooled, melted butter. Lightly mix in eggs and then fold in walnuts.

Walnut Brownies

Pour into tin and bake for about 25 mins until firm, but just set in the middle. Allow to cool in tin, then cut into bars or squares, depending on what size you would like the pieces to be.

Walnut Brownies

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