The Chocolate Walnut Brownies were the first thing I ever baked with a serious intent of baking. Borrowing this recipe from my Mum’s colleague, I went ahead with this brownie head on with full confidence and head held high.
Well, that is ignoring the frantic calls I made to my Mum’s colleague at 10 PM about whether she meant tablespoon or teaspoon, whether I could substitute certain ingredients, and of course at what temperature to pre heat my oven at (Always 10-15 degrees below your baking temperature btw).
Ever since then, this brownie recipe is the one recipe I have full confidence on. I bake this more often than anything else. Especially during the winter months (*cough cough*Left over *cough* Diwali*cough* Walnuts*cough cough*), and it has never done me wrong.
What I love about these brownies is that they are hassle free, no melting of chocolate required, and the dark cocoa gives it that lovely dark chocolate feel which goes absolutely perfectly with a scoop of ice cream, and some chocolate ganache maybe (Hershey’s chocolate syrup to the rescue otherwise. Hurrah!). And there is something very magical about the combination of chocolate and walnuts. The sweetness, the bitterness, the moist texture and the crunchy bite has the most ‘this is home’ feel to it.
I give you, Chocolate Walnut Brownies.
Chocolate Walnut Brownies
Serves : 10 hungry monsters. (Yields 24 mid sized brownies)
Difficulty : A tad bit tricky. But if you can boil Pasta and don’t cut yourself while chopping vegetables, go ahead please.
Preparation Time : 15-20 minutes.
Cook Time : 25-30 minutes
Ingredients
- 1 cup of Maida
- 100 grams of Butter
- 1 and 1/2 cup of sugar
- 4 egg
- 2 tbsp of Vanilla Essence (I used 2 small Vanilla Pods)
- 6 heaped tbsp of Cocoa Powder
- 4 tbsp of Curd
- 1 cup of walnuts
As Remy (the rat) himself agrees, we start of by helping the butter and sugar mingle.
Usually, we take a 1:1 ratio of butter and sugar, but the added sugar is required to balance of the bitterness of cocoa that we’ll be using. So extra sugar ahoy!
Creaming it for about 3-4 minutes, it ends up looking like so.
Now, we break in the eggs. And as always, add the vanilla.
I used Vanilla Seeds from 2 small Vanilla Pods again. Vanilla extract can easily be used.
Beating it for not more than a minute, gives you this lovely smooth batter.
Now keeping this aside, we get hold of a sieve and another bowl/plate which is slighly bigger than the diameter of the sieve. We add in the flour and the cocoa together, and sieve it. This is done to remove any lumps that might be present in either of them.
Believe me, this one extra precaution leads to flawless brownie texture. Don’t skip.
Once this is done, add this cocoa+flour mixture by the spoonful to the butter,sugar,egg,vanilla batter.
It first looks like a chocolate milkshake, and then you keep adding some more.
And a few spoons later, it smells like chocolate heaven.
By the time you’ve exhausted the cocoa+flour, you want to dive into this rich dark batter.
Oh baby, restrain! (Name that song)
Add in 4 tablespoons of curd/unsweetened yoghurt. It again dilutes some of the bitterness, and helps give this smooth velvety texture.
And beat.
If ever, you realise you don’t have curd at home mid way of this recipe, you can easily substitute it with milk. (Yea, um, this has never happened with me. I’m always full prepared.)
Now, dunk in half of the walnuts into the batter (1/2 cup) and lightly fold it in.
To prep your baking dish, as usual, butter it up.
Then sprinkle it with some flour.
And then lightly twist and twirl, so that the flour evenly coats all the surfaces of the pan. The bottom, the sides the corners. Everything. This helps easy removal of the brownie whole once its baked. Else, it just might collapse.
Now, pour in the batter. And scatter the remaining half of the walnuts on top.
Now, Bake at 180 degree Celsius fro 25-30 minutes.
Once the oven has ding-ed, take a toothpick or a knife. Slowly insert it through the middle. If it comes out clean, you’re good to go. If not, pop it back in for another couple of minutes till it does.
Once its done, let it rest and cool for another 15-20 minutes.
When its cooled down, run a knife along the edges to release the brownie whole. Cover the baking dish with a plate, and flip. After a couple of pounds on the dish’s back, the brownie should easily release and snuggly sit on the plate.
All you need to do now, is cut it up.
And enjoy. 🙂
Add a little ice cream, splatter a little sauce.
Yum.
You know, if they gave away this to all the Unhate campaign‘s target couples, there might not have been an Unhate campaign to begin with.
Such is the power of the Chocolate Walnut Brownies.
21 comments
How do you manage to cook with your camera all the time???
Haha. I need to multi-task. It was difficult initially, but I’ve gotten used to it now. 🙂
I lovvvvvvvvvvve the labelling 😀 and need I even say about the brownie 🙂
Beautiful pictures and composition. Your brownies look simply amazing, I’m gonna have to make them soon :).Thanks for sharing!
Thank you. Hope you enjoy them too! 🙂
mouth watering…….
lovely composition!
Thanks!:)
Wow what a great recipe. I will be sure to try this next time I bake.
Below is a really nice simple brownie recipe which is good for cooking with kids.
http://www.wascene.com/food-drink/perfect-chocolate-brownie-recipe/
Thanks for sharing 🙂
Sara
Hi! Great recipe. I just had a query. What exactly is ‘one cup’ in terms of measuring from my usual measuring glass?
As in how many grams of flour is it?
1 cup of flour would be around 125 grams. As you can see in the picture of ingredients, I just measure the flour in the ‘1 cup’ measuring spoon. Hope this helps!
When you crave a brownie, nothing but a gooey chocolate-y brownie will do. Always a pleasure to see other Indian food bloggers!
I’ve got a query: I’ve always shied away from any cocoa powder other than Cadbury or Hershey’s. How do you find Blue Bird? I’ve used their demerara sugar and found it to be pretty decent!
Absolutely! What is a brownie if not gooey and sinful?
Blue Bird is turning out to be quite a favorite of mine. Their cocoa is perfect and bitter. I’d suggest you’d give them a try!
Loved your blog too Rabia. I’ve already bookmarked a few recipes. I hope I get you dropping by more often, you know I will. 🙂
On my excessively-long shopping list!
Love-love-LOVE your blog. Your photography is astounding. Was just searching for the Follow button! Cannot wait to follow your adventures in the land of chocolate-nutella-and-more-chocolate with devotion. Thanks so much for your kick-ass comments on mine. 🙂
We shall leave it at mutual admiration then. 🙂
Can you please tell me the dimensions of your pan.
i wanna make these…just wanna make sure mine turn out as thick as yours.
so want to know – the measurements u gave are good for what pan.
Thanks.
The pan I’ve used here are 10″x 6″ and 1.5″ deep. Though these measurements are good for a 7″ square pan as well, which I also use while making these brownies.
Since these brownies won’t rise much, just check if the batter is layered up thick enough to your liking. Else just use a smaller pan to get a taller brownie 🙂
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i needed to ask you this:
i actually dont have a square/rectangle shaped pan instead i have a flower shaped pan.. so can i use that or is it not going to work
please tell me cause i’m making the brownie tomorrow so please….
<3
Hey Ekisha
Never tried it myself, but I think a flower shaped pan should work. Though keep checking the pan in its last few minutes in the oven. Keep doing the toothpick coming out clean test that I’ve mentioned, and you should be fine 🙂
Let me know how it turns out!
okay
hey ashmita the brownie was awesome i made it my friends went gaga for it!!!! thanks a lot… 😀