(post originally featured on http://rupeerags.com/blog/)
Sitting at my desk after having just finished up my end of semester exams, I breathed a sigh of relief and immediately started scrolling through my Pinterest for recipe inspirations. The très chic duo behind Rupee Rags wanted me to come up with a baked good to be featured on their blog and I was mind numb. After a good few minutes of writers block due to the fact I wanted to bake something impressive and awe inspiring for others, it finally clicked. Baking isn't about what others want to eat, it's about what you feel most comfortable and at ease with. Simple, it had to be a combination of cocoa, white chocolate, a pinch of salt and spoonful of sugar and walnuts hence the name 'Brownies with a Crunch'.
Notes
- Incorporating the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients in batches helps the mixture to incorporate well.
- Feel free to experiment with the additional ingredients and replace walnuts and white choc-chips with your preferred choice of flavours.
- Test the brownies at the 50 minute mark to ensure that they haven't already cooked through. Baking is all about experimentation and getting a feel for what timing best suits your oven.
- You can choose to either make these brownies by hand or use a kitchen mixer, the choice is yours.
- To roast walnuts, you can either heat them on a pan or spread them out on a tray and allow them to cook in the oven for 5 minutes, ensuring that they do not burn.
Yields: 12
Cooking Time: 30 minutes
Preparation Time: 20 minutes
Ingredients
- 200g good-quality dark chocolate
- 120 g unsalted butter, chopped
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 200 g brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 150 g plain flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 100 g white chocolate chips
- 100g roasted walnuts (see Notes)
- flake salt
- icing sugar (to dust)
Method
- Preheat the oven to 170ºC or 338 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Melt the chocolate with the butter and vanilla. Do this in the microwave, or in a metal bowl set over a smaller saucepan of boiling water, ensuring the base of the bowl does not touch the water.
- Stir the mixture until smooth. (Use a glove if you choose to use the saucepan method.)
- When smooth, remove from the heat. Stir in the sugar until it has dissolved into the chocolate.
- Now whisk in first one egg and then the next. Mix the flour, baking powder and salt together. Sift a little of this mixture onto the chocolate mixture and fold it in. Keep going until all the flour is incorporated.
- Add white choc-chips and roughly crushed roasted walnuts (see Notes) and fold through the mixture.
- Butter/Oil a low-sided metal slice tray and line with a sheet of baking paper, extending it beyond the long sides of the tray to act as a sling to lift the brown out of the tin.
- Spoon the mixture into the tin and sprinkle with a few grains of flake salt.
- Bake for 25–30 minutes, which means the brownie will have risen, the top will look shiny and cracked in places and if you jab it with a skewer in the middle it will still come out a bit sticky and fudgy. Cook longer if it’s still sludgy and wet.
- Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin. Cut into squares, dust with icing sugar and enjoy with a glass of milk! x
