A good friend of mine really loves brownies. And for him, only a fudgy brownie is a good brownie! So when his birthday came, I decided to bake him a large tray of the chocolaty sweet. Turned out we all went to an Italian restaurant in the end…

But as the ingredients lay ready, it did not take me long to find the next opportunity. I am usually not much of a friend of chocolate desserts myself, although I love a piece of intensely dark, good chocolate. However, as so many times before in my life, I stand corrected. I fell absolutely in love with this recipe and the wonderfully moist, chewy, and – yes – fudgy little square of wonder that it guides you to let rise in your oven…

So – here’s to share 🙂

Sanni

Ingredients (for a 20×25 cm rectangular cake pan):

• 300 grams of high-quality dark patisserie chocolate (if you cannot get a good patisserie chocolate, you can also use a 1:1 mix of dark baking chocolate and couverture)
• 150 grams of butter
• 75 grams of hazelnut oil
• 3 oeufs
• 175 g of caster sugar
• 2 vanilla pods
• 225 grams of flour
• 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
• pinch of salt
• Optionally: 150 grams of cashew nuts (or any other type of nut or dried fruit)

Preparation:

1. Pre-heat the oven at 180 degrees Celsius.
2. Cut the chocolate and the butter up into pieces and place in a stainless steel bowl. Warm up over a water-bath (not too hot) until completely melted.
3. Mix in the oil and stir until smooth. Set aside.
4. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs with the sugar until very creamy and light.
5. Cut the vanilla pods in half and remove the seeds with the non-sharp side of a knife. Add the seeds to the egg and sugar mix.
6. Add the melted chocolate mix to the egg mix and fold in with a baking spatula until completely smooth.
7. Finally, pass the flour through a fine mesh onto the egg and chocolate mix. Add the baking soda and salt and fold in carefully until completely smooth.
8. Optionally, toast the cashew nuts in a non-stick frying pan (no oil added) over medium heat for around 5 minutes. Roughly chop and fold into the batter.
9. Butter a rectangular cake pan (approx. 20 x 25 cm). I recommend to line the bottom with parchment paper, so you won’t scratch the tart pan when cutting the cake after baking.
10. Bake for around 20 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius. After 20 minutes, the center should still be very moist and chewy. Let cool down a bit, cut into squares (or whichever shape you like) and serve warm (my personal recommendation!); or let down cool down completely and serve cold.