Nutty fudgey brownies

I was invited to a ladies luncheon at a girlfriend's last week. I knew she was a fan of brownies, so I decided to make a some to bring over even though I'd never made any before. 

Ingredients

½ C raw coconut oil

115g Green & Black’s organic dark chocolate, chopped

⅓ C organic honey

⅓ C (loosely packed) dark muscovado sugar 

2 free range medium eggs

1 tsp pure vanilla bean paste

⅔ C blanched almond flour (loosely packed), sifted

¼ tsp baking soda, sifted

½ C raw walnuts, chopped

 

Method

1. In a bain-marie, melt the coconut oil, chocolate, honey, and sugar over low heat, stirring constantly. Make sure the sugar melts completely. Remove from heat and let cool.
2. Whisk the eggs, one at a time, into the chocolate mixture.
3. Whisk in the vanilla paste.
4. In a separate bowl, mix together the almond flour and baking soda.
5. Whisk in the almond flour mixture into the chocolate mixture in 3 batches. Stir until combined and let the mixture sit for 20 minutes. In the meantime, preheat the oven to 175⁰C.
6. Stir in the chopped walnuts.
7. Grease an 8x8x2-inch baking pan with removable bottom.
8. Spread the brownie mixture into the pan. Tap a few times on the counter to get rid of any air bubbles.
9. Bake in a 175⁰C oven for 30 minutes. Cool on a wire rack before removing the bottom from the pan. 
10. Chill for at least 20 minutes in the fridge before cutting into bars.

Having not used a non-silicon mould in a long time, I was nervous when it came to removing the cooled cake from the bottom. Chilling the whole cake first and then slicing it into bars made it easier, even though the bottom of the cake did stick to the pan. That said, it actually worked out well for me as I got to taste the brownies without consuming a whole bar by simply sampling the scrapings.

Nutty fudgey brownie bars

I went to the gym before the luncheon and left two bars with my trainer. I later got compliments on the brownies from him via a text message. The girls at lunch also liked them, saying that they didn't taste any different from the wheat version (which I take to be a good thing in this context!).

Once again, the use of muscovado really complimented the dark chocolate. And the walnuts added a delicious nutty flavour. Husband scoffed down the few that I kept for him at home. I think I will experiment with using pure molasses and different nuts. But in any case, these nutty fudgey brownies will no doubt be a firm favourite in our house.