Insanely Chocolatey Brownies

Posted by in Chocolate Recipes on July 15 2011 | Leave A Comment

This recipe is one we kind of invented by accident. It’s based on a few brownie recipes that are around, with some changes to try and go gluten-free.

Ingredients

  • 150g salted butter
  • 300g dark chocolate (we used 100g Lindt 70%; 100g Lindt 85%, and 100g Lindt Intense Orange)
  • 1 ½ cups (300g) light brown sugar
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 cup (100g) ground almond meal
  • ½ cup (50g) of flaked almonds, lightly toasted
  • Small tub (200ml) natural yogurt
  • Optional: Sifted cocoa powder or icing sugar to dust; or some fresh strawberries to garnish

Method

Preheat your oven to 180°C, then line a cake tin with greaseproof or baking paper.

Smash up the chocolate a bit, then put it and the butter in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Make sure the bowl is in the steam, not in the water. The butter and chocolate will slowly melt. When most of it has it has melted, mix together and remove from the heat. Any last unmelted parts will melt after removing. Allow to cool for 2 – 3 minutes.

While the chocolate and butter is cooling, toast your nuts. A frying pan will work but it’s easy to burn them, putting the pan under a grill works better.

Once the nuts are toasted, pour the butter / chocolate mix into a mixing bowl with the sugar, mix together, then mix in the eggs.

Add the almond meal, and mix in, then yogurt and nuts, and mix in as well.

Pour this into your lined tin. You will need to smooth the top because the mixture will be very rich and thick. If you are concerned at this point by the orange scent from that Intense Orange – don’t be!

Cook for 50 minutes. Cooking time will vary depending on your oven and the thickness of the mix due to the size tin you use. Check to see if a skewer comes out clean after about 40 minutes, if its not done then check after a further 5 or 10 minutes. If the skewer does come out clean, give it another 5 minutes.

Once removed from the oven, remove from the tin and cool on a wire rack. Remove the paper only when it has cooled. Don’t try and cut it until it has cooled – you will find that when hot, it falls apart very easily, cooling helps it set better.

The Result

An intensely, insanely rich chocolate brownie that improves in texture and flavour over the next couple of days. It will be sticky, slightly gooey, and feel like a cross between a brownie and a fudge. This is hard to cut and may stick to a knife. Warming it might help.

Don’t eat these with cream! Serve small pieces with some fresh fruit. Or just eat a little in a corner where nobody can see you making a mess of yourself – and feel the guilty pleasure.

Variations

  • If you don’t care about gluten free, change the almond meal to plain flour – the result won’t be quite as sticky.
  • Add a teaspoon of ground coffee (real coffee, not instant) – you will barely taste it but there will be a lift in flavour.
  • Use sour cream instead of yogurt.

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Comments On This Post

  1. Rowena

    hmm..this sounds like a weekend project for me! and best part..all the ingredients can be easily found here where i am.. Sigh..i love this blog

  2. Louise

    Oh my, this sounds lush! Very excited to give this one a go. So far I’ve only made brownies according to the Gospel of Nigella, so I’m eager to see how these compare. Yum!

  3. Ashleigh

    Here’s a couple of hints:
    – This takes a lot more cooking than you might think… so when we say “when it seems done give it 5 more minutes” that’s what we mean.
    – We actually used a small tub of yogurt – about 200ml.
    – A hot knife to cut works reasonably well – use a mug of boiling water and dip the knife in frequently.

    And…

    This really is very very rich. This recipe will serve at least 10 people and they will all die of chocolate overdose. You could serve 20 with small serves.

    Keep it in the fridge. And, 3 to 5 days later its sticky and AWESOME.

    Enjoy

  4. Shelly

    How did you know that I am planning to make chocolate brownies and that my friend and I are wheat intolerant?! It’s like witchcraft! 🙂

  5. Haven’t used yogurt in brownies yet and although I’ve recently made some absolutely amazing brownies am needing something to take to work that will keep a couple of days, so I might just give this one a go.

  6. Tim

    This Chocolate Brownie recipe looks really great.

  7. Yum, those sound so good! I LOVE brownies, but I always struggle with texture since I like the really fudgy ones best!

  8. I made these at the weekend, and boy does it make a lot if you follow the size guidelines set above… I’ve still got some left over from the bake, and I’ve brought enough in for all the office (12+ people) to enjoy, given some to friends, ate quite a bit myself, the usual stuff. Excellent recipe, though now I’m wondering if it would be worth splitting the final bar into a 50g of orange and 50g of milk just to take the slightly too bitter edge away… either that or experiment with different chocolate flavours 😀

  9. Ashleigh

    Hi LazerFX – yes, it certainly does make a lot.

    Your point about the slight bitterness is a good one. If bitter dark chocolate is not your thing, then take out that 85% bar and either replace it by a 70% or go 50/50 with 70% and intense orange.

    We did make a slightly different recipe (one that came before this one) where we knocked the bitter dark chocolate back quite a bit, and it wasn’t as good. Perhaps this is subjective. Perhaps also another option would be to add another 1/2 cup of sugar.

  10. Wow! mouthwatering, delicious dish. I love it very much. i can have it in breakfast, lunch and in dinner.My mum used to prepare it for me. But alas! now i am away from her.But your easy steps of browni to prepare it will help me to make it.

  11. Really so happy to find a good recipe that is Gluten free thanks

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