Brownies

Triple Chocolate Almond Brownies

~ Agata @BarkTime ~ 9 Comments

Super rich in flavour, dense yet chewy in the middle, those brownies offer the perfect cross between cookies and a cake.

Purposefully made to not be a sweet as traditional brownies whilst retaining all the wonderful flavours you would expect they offer a more intense experience. The chewy middle encapsulated with a crunchy exterior is complimented with the nuts for that pleasing crunch the mouth adores and all backed up with a small tingle from the coffee buzz… could you ask for more.

Ingredients:

  • 150g dark chocolate; roughly chopped
  • 150g caster sugar
  • 115g butter; cubed
  • 100g almonds; roughly chopped
  • 55g plain flour
  • 50g white chocolate; roughly chopped
  • 30g drinking chocolate
  • 2 eggs; beaten
  • 1tbsp instant coffee
  • 1tbsp filtered hot water
  • 1/2tsp vanilla essence

Super rich in flavour, dense yet chewy in the middle, those brownies offer the perfect cross between cookies and a cake.Method:

Preheat the oven to 180C and prepare an 8-inch square tin by lining it with baking paper, unless you, like me, bake in a silicone tray in which case no lining is necessary.

In a heavy bottomed saucepan, over a very low heat melt the butter and dark chocolate slowly. Once melted remove from the heat and add the sugar, stir constantly until it is all dissolved.

Put aside the mixture to cool down.

In a small cup mix together the hot water and instant coffee and again set aside to cool; once cold add the vanilla essence.

Beat the eggs with a fork or whisk in a small bowl or cup.

In yet another bowl sift the flour and drinking chocolate together.

Once your dark chocolate has cooled down to around room temperature pour into a mixing bowl and then add the whisked eggs, the coffee and vanilla mixture and stir the mix until combined.

Fold in your flour and drinking chocolate; finally gently fold in the chopped almonds and white chocolate chunks.

Spread the mixture out evenly in your pre-prepared baking tray and bake for 28-30 minutes or until just set in the middle… avoid over baking as over baked brownies will tend to be dry and hard, I like to check on them once my timer hits the 25-minute mark just to keep a close eye on them.

Remove from the oven and place the tray on a cooling rack to allow them to cool completely.

Cut into your desired serving portion size and enjoy!

Super rich in flavour, dense yet chewy in the middle, those brownies offer the perfect cross between cookie and a cake.

Baking Mad! – Quick and Easy Chocolate Brownies

~ Agata @BarkTime ~ 33 Comments

Just before the weekend Baking Mad sent me a lovely box of baking goodies… I had no choice but to bake something 🙂

They have an amazing selection of recipes on the website but I wanted to bake some brownies. Months ago I bought myself a “perfect brownie” pan set; it supposes to do it all – bake, slice and serve. I’ve never used it and I really wanted to try it out… so the choice was made – we are going to have some brownies!

I picked something quick and easy as you can’t go wrong with some Chocolate Brownies.

Ingredients:

  • 150g Butter (unsalted)
  • 250g Dark chocolate
  • 175g Unrefined light muscovado sugar (we use Billington’s)
  • 75g Plain white flour
  • 75g Almonds (ground)
  • 3 Eggs large

Method:

Preheat the oven to 170°C (150°C fan, gas mark 3).

Grease and line a cake tin. I actually just greased my one slightly as the box said it should be non-stick, so in the spirit of saving the planet I decided to save some grease proof paper 😉

Place all of the chocolate into a bowl and add the butter. Set the bowl over a pan of gently simmering water; remember to make sure the water does not touch the bottom of the bowl. Stir gently until melted. Remove the bowl from the pan and cool slightly (we left it off the heat for about 5 minutes).

Beat the sugar into the chocolate mixture using an electric mixer.

Add the eggs one at a time until all combined.

Sift in the flour and beat until the mixture is smooth.

Finally add the almonds and mix well.

Pour the mix into the tin and bake for 30 minutes or until the skewer inserted into the brownie comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and allow it to cool.

Now was the time I was waiting for… time to test my perfect brownie tray… cutting the brownies…

So what do you think? Not perfect but much easier and quicker than doing it with a knife.

Anyways…

… at this point your brownies are ready; make a cuppa and enjoy!