walnut and cocoa nib brownies

i had a real chocolate craving on friday and having finished the box of geranium dainty dollops that a friend gave me a few weeks ago (thanks sue, they were delish!) i decided to get baking. i’m not sure how i found jennie’s recipe for walnut fudge brownies but having read her descriptor i had to give them a go. i particularly love the idea of putting the walnuts on top so that they become slightly toasted.

i followed jennie’s recipe but added cocoa nibs for a bit of interest. i also fiddled with the sugar content and used a mixture of milk chocolate and a dark chocolate with orange oil and spices – this was instead of the coffee powder which she uses.

the resulting brownies were really wonderful – i had mine with cream and david went for ice cream. thanks jennie.

walnut & cocoa nib brownies* (makes 12-16)

100g butter

150g chocolate, broken into pieces (i used a mix of milk and dark chocolate)

2 eggs

125g sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

75g flour

50g cocoa powder

½ a teaspoon of sea salt (i use maldon flakes)

2 heaped teaspoons cocoa nibs (optional)

8 tablespoons butter, cut into pieces

100g walnuts, chopped (optional)

preheat the oven to 180c. grease and line a 20cm square baking tray (if your tray is bigger than this you should increase the quantities as the brownies are only c2cm deep).

melt the butter and chocolate in a small pan over a low heat, stirring occasionally. leave to cool slightly.

meanwhile, beat the eggs, sugar and vanilla together until pale yellow and thickened. whisk in the melted butter/chocolate mix. sieve in the flour and cocoa and fold this in. stir in the salt and cocoa nibs then pour the mixture into the baking tray. sprinkle with walnuts and bake for 25 minutes** until a skewer comes out clean. leave to cool before cutting.

* based on jennie’s recipe

** jennie has a 40 minute cooking time but my brownies too much less so check your after 20 minutes and go from there