Alice Medrich first got my attention after I baked a Chocolate Raspberry Genoise Cake. That is without doubt the best chocolate cake I have ever tasted. Originally I made it for my daughter’s birthday and it was such an amazing hit with everybody. Her friend, that was at the birthday party still keeps the blog post tab open on her phone. She is also claiming that it was the best cake she ever had. It is hard to argue with good.
This positive experience imminently gave a great deal of credibility to Alice’s chocolate recipes. Needless to say, now whenever I want to make something with chocolate, Alice is the first that comes to mind. Today I decided to make brownies using the recipe from her book “Cookies and Brownies”.
Truth to be told I was never big on brownies. They are so main stream that just the thought of them made me bored. Between chocolate chip cookies and brownies, it would be hard to find a soul that does not like them. Well not me. These two are so commercialized, and for me, that alone becomes a turnoff point.
However, my daughters are back home on a break from university and I know that the younger one loves good brownies. In my stash, I have some good quality unsweetened chocolate and this was a perfect opportunity to put it to good use.
Without hard thinking I chose Alice’s recipe and as anticipated it did not disappoint once again. This morning the whole house was enveloped with rich chocolate aroma. I had a couple of squares with my afternoon coffee and I have to admit that I did find these brownies very tasty. They are very aromatic and simply melt in the mouth. Who knows maybe this is a turning point and I will start paying more attention to these “everybody’s favorites”.
To add a bit of a personal touch I added to recipe a dose of crushed roasted hazelnuts. Chocolate and roasted hazelnuts are heavenly pair, that was a no-brainer. The chewy dark chocolate body got its aromatic crunchy partner.
In the end, I would say that in my books, this is one more of “go to” great chocolate recipes.
| Prep Time | 20 minutes |
| Cook Time | 40 minutes |
| Passive Time | 30 minutes |
| Servings |
pieces
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- 110 g unsalted butter
- 120 g unsweetened chocolate
- 1 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 1/2 cup all purpose non bleached flour
- 2 eggs
- 2/3 cup crushed hazelnuts roasted, skin removed
Ingredients
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- Preheat oven to 205 ºC (400 ºF) with rack positioned in the lower third of the oven.
- Line 20cm x 20cm (8"x 8") square metal baking pan with parchment paper.
- In a double boiler over simmering water, melt together chocolate and butter. Stir until smooth and unified.
- With a wooden spoon, stir in sugar, salt and vanilla.
- Add one egg at the time to the mixture and incorporate by constant stirring.
- Gradually add flour to the mix and stir until the mixture is homogeneous and without any lumps.
- Add roasted hazelnuts and mix until evenly distributed throughout the batter.
- Pour the batter into the lined pan and bake for about 30 minutes.
- Put the pan in a cold bath and let it cool off for about 30 minutes. Be careful not to splatter water on top of the baked cake.
- Cut baked cake into 16 squares and serve. Store at room temperature in a sealed container or covered with a plastic wrap to prevent drying out.
- Spread hazelnuts over a parchment paper lined baking pan and roast at 175ºC (350ºF ) for 10-15 minutes or until fragrant and their skin is cracked.
- Wrap the roasted hazelnuts in a kitchen towel, set them in a bowl and let them cool off for about 10 minutes.
- Close and twist the towel creating a bundle with hazelnuts. Rub the bundle in circular motion against your palm or other flat surface. Through rubbing action against one another, the hazelnuts skin will come off in small flakes.
- Transfer skinned hazelnuts to a large Ziploc bag. Crush hazelnuts to desired particle size by using a rolling pin.
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