The week started on an excellent note. Little A is very happy that we are slowly ditching his regular store bought toys and getting down to some real fun play. I am enjoying it too! Amidst all the fun that we were having, one evening hubby came running from the bedroom to tell me he doesn’t have a washed trouser to wear to office next day. The frantic woman in me went rushing to the bathroom to check on the laundry bag – it was full!, dryer in the balcony already had some dark colored clothes drying and there were a couple of washed clothes lying in the cupboard waiting to be ironed. Thank goodness I could find a trouser in them! Ofcourse there was a backlog and I was feeling the guilt. Hubby jokingly passes a comment that never in these years of marriage he had to remind me of my household duties and walks away. That disappointed me! To break away from the stress I decided to bake next day. All the foodies, by now, knows that stressed spelt backwards is desserts. No I don’t think it’s a co incidence. What do you do when you are stressed? You do something you love, right? Ok let us assume this was an excuse for me to start baking again.
Sorry for all the rant, but I had to vent somewhere. Also, it’s been ages since I last baked, almost months ago. Main reason to stop baking was for the weight husband and wife were gaining. But Little A loves all things sweet so we were buying them from a store, feeding him and ourselves and still putting on. All my rants and blab deserve another post! I gave into the temptation and started contemplating between a swiss roll and a brownie. I have never made a swiss roll though I have been wanting to make it from a very long time. On the other hand, last time I made brownies, take it as a confession, it was a serious disaster. It was so dry it finally found a place in a bin. After checking ingredients in the kitchen, I finally decided to go with brownies since there was also some nutella on hand. Swiss roll will be for later, probably when I’ll have guests at home!! Started digging on the recipes all over the internet (thanks to the smart phones, life has become so easy) and when I finally arrived on Laura in the Kitchen, I was drooling over the photos of the fudge brownies that she made.
This recipe is adapted from Laura in the Kitchen. I simply love her cooking. The recipe is super easy and suitable for any baker. I prefer doing some experiment with the adapted recipes, so as to add a little touch of yours truly. I was little skeptical of it because of the disaster I mentioned before but I still went ahead with adding nutella instead of chocolate and almond powder to flour to enhance the taste. If you don’t like pieces of nuts in the cakes like me, go ahead with adding this secret ingredient (sheepish smile) and you’ll thank me. Or even if you completely ignore it, your brownies will still be delicious. I love my brownies to be sinfully rich and sticky rather than cakey like, so adding loads of nutella also does the trick.
Let’s finally get started on the process of making a nutella fudge brownie. Below ingredients were used to make brownies for a family of 2 adults and 1 child. For such small ingredients I used my round small baking pan but I think square pan does the maximum justice for brownies. I regret not using a square pan atleast for photography sake! I was happy with the outcome of taste and texture nonetheless! Feel free to double or triple the ingredients as per the quantity you wish to make. You will need -
Ingredients :-
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter (Lurpak is the best!!! I swear by it)
- 1/2 cup nutella (original recipe called for melted bittersweet chocolate but I only had nutella in the kitchen, so used that)
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 large egg at room temperature
- 2 tbsp warm milk
- 3/4 cup all purpose flour
- 2 tbsp almond powder (Run almonds with skin in a food processor or a blender into a fine powder)
Method :-
Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celcius. Line your baking tray with greased parchment paper with sides up from two opposite sides as it is easy to remove the brownies from the pan after it is baked. Set aside. Everything is pretty straighforward now. Melt the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl with a whisk until it is well combined. Add in vanilla extract and egg. Mix until it is soft and creamy. This will take a little time but worth the wait. To the flour add almond powder, baking powder and salt. Give it a stir so it is mixed together. Now, in the egg butter mixture add in nutella and milk. Again, mix this well. Pour dry ingredients over the the wet mixture and incorporate it with a gentle hand. Do not over mix it otherwise you will have a break dough. Batter will be nice, fluffy and resemble a mousse. Pour the batter in the prepared pan and spread evenly using a spatula. Bake it in your preheated over for about 45 minutes. Or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with cake crumbs on it but not wet.
Let it cool, cut them in squares and serve with a dollop of cream or a scoop of vanilla ice cream. It was perfect – crunchy layer on the top and so soft from inside it melted in the mouth.Plus not at all dry. It was chewy, delicious and amazingly chocolatey, both hubby and Little A kept wanting for more. This is now my go-to recipe and I am definitely making these again!
Mousse like batter, not overly mixed.
PS – After this baking episode I have promised myself only to bake in the afternoon or at midnight when Little A sleeps. I had a hard time keeping him away from the kitchen (obviously because of the hot oven). In one moment of shooing him away, I held the hot rack and burnt my pinky! Lesson learned a hard way!
Happy Baking!