Macadamia nut brownies

Because my first batch of brownies received rave reviews all around (and because I only kept a few for the Husband), I made another batch a couple of days later, this time swapping honey for molasses and walnuts for macadamias.

Ingredients

½ C raw coconut oil

130g Green & Black’s organic dark chocolate, broken in pieces or chopped

2-3 tbsp natural molasses
⅓ C dark muscovado, loosely packed

2 free range medium eggs

1 tsp pure vanilla bean paste

⅔ C blanched almond flour (loosely packed), sifted

¼ tsp baking soda, sifted

1 C raw macadamia nuts, halved

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.
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 thoroughly and let the mixture sit for 20 minutes. In the meantime, preheat the oven to 175⁰C.
6. Stir in the nuts.
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.

Working with the molasses was a bit tricky as it is very sticky but using an electric mixer helped. It's hard to say if I preferred this batch or the last one with honey and walnuts. I asked for Husband's views and he couldn't decide, saying both were good. I have to say that I loved the treacle-like flavour of molasses and thought that it complimented the dark chocolate. The macadamias were more subtle than the walnuts but provided a welcomed crunch to this moist cake. 

After these first two experiments with brownies, I can envisage plenty more in my future.