I swore when I started my blog it wouldn’t be all about brownies, cookies scattered with m&m’s and similar baked treats. Well, I am going to have to eat my words because here we have another brownie recipe and later this week I am making something with m&m’s (with my daughters) but please stay tuned because I do promise more adventurous things too.
What attracted me to this recipe in the first place was one of its ingredients being brown butter, this being my most recently learnt and favourite ingredient/technique. The Brown Butter Hazelnut Cake I made a couple of weeks ago would easily fall into my top 5 best cakes ever and I attribute it’s heavenly tasting, melt-in-your-mouth characteristics to the brown butter it contains. So it didn’t take much to convince me that this special ingredient might also be wonderful in a brownie too.
I was not wrong. Once again this simple ingredient performs some sort of culinary miracle on your humble brownie. Now I love a good dense & fudgy brownie but these are dense & chewy but somehow quite light, yet rich. Alot of this can be attributed to the fact that you use cocoa instead of chocolate but the brown butter really does add a decadent and nutty flavour that takes the brownie into the taste sensation category.
Consider this another version of your standard brownie – the dinner party version, certainly a must-try for all you chocoholics out there.
Nonstick vegetable oil spray
10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 1/4 cups sugar
3/4 cup natural unsweetened cocoa powder (spooned into cup to measure, then leveled)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs, chilled
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon unbleached all purpose flour
1 cup walnut pieces
Position rack in bottom third of oven; preheat to 325°F. Line 8x8x2-inch metal baking pan with foil, pressing foil firmly against pan sides and leaving 2-inch overhang. Coat foil with nonstick spray.
Melt butter in medium saucepan over medium heat. Continue cooking until butter stops foaming and browned bits form at bottom of pan, stirring often, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat; immediately add sugar, cocoa, 2 teaspoons water, vanilla, and 1/4 teaspoon (generous) salt. Stir to blend. Let cool 5 minutes (mixture will still be hot). Add eggs to hot mixture 1 at a time, beating vigorously to blend after each addition. When mixture looks thick and shiny, add flour and stir until blended. Beat vigorously 60 strokes. Stir in nuts. Transfer batter to prepared pan.
Bake brownies until toothpick inserted into center comes out almost clean (with a few moist crumbs attached), about 25 minutes. Cool in pan on rack. Using foil overhang, lift brownies from pan. Cut into 4 strips. Cut each strip crosswise into 4 brownies.
Notes: My brownies took a little longer than 25 minutes – around 35 in fact. I am stilll working on my oven nuaunces – I think it may be slow but don’t be alarmed if at 25 minutes you still have an uncooked middle and need to bake it a little longer.
Source: Alice Medrich for Bon Appetit
© 2011, Michelle. All rights reserved.
