Brownies with Pecan Nuts

A friend of mine at the stable, asked me today if I have a good recipe for Brownies.  So I thought to add this one to my recipe page.

This is a recipe I found in Philippe Conticini “Sensations” [WARNING: The book is in French]: 288 recettes de patisseries.  He says about this recipe:  A Brownie is an American cookie, but revised and corrected with a fine layer of Streusel of nuts and cacao.  ”It’s moist, it’s crusty, it’s chocalaty… it’s too good!”

It looks so promising I’ll definitely bake it one of these days.

For 6 chocolate lovers.

As any recipe, read this one all through from to bottom, use your senses and think ahead of time! For this one you can do some lovely things well beforehand, and combine some of what you prepare in other recipes too. I cannot wait to start on this one too.

- 4 eggs

- 125 gr. sugar

- 125 gr. butter (half salted)

- 125 gr. black couverture chocolat

- 65 gr. flour type 55 (King Arthur Flour, 550 flour in Germany)

- 100 gr bitter couverture chocolat, chopped into 3 by 3 mm pieces

- 110 gr. pecan nuts caramelized

- a bit of butter

- a bit of brown sugar

For the Cacao Streusel:

- 50 gr butter (remove from the refrigerator 30 minutes beforehand)

- 50 gr brown sugar

- 65 gr nut flour (finely ground nuts)

- 50 gr flour type 45 (pastry flour in the US, 405 flour in Germany)

- 20 gr cacao powder

- 2 pinches of sea salt

1. The cacao Streusel

In your kitchen robot, mix flour, brown sugar, salt, nut flour and cacao powder.  Whisk together using your kitchen robot and add the butter.  Set the mixer on medium speed until the butter is mixed well with the flour, sugar, salt, nut flour and the cacao powder. I use my own hand whisker, less dishes and stronger muscles:)

Line a baking tray with parchment paper, and spread the Streusel cacao in a crumbly way on to it.  Then let bake for 30 minutes at 150C (300F).

2. Caramelized pecan nuts

It’s a huge amount, and you can of course prepare half or a quart of them. I like to use them too in salads, or just as a snack.

- 600 gr pecan nuts

-400 gr sugar

- 100 gr water (1dl)

2.a.  Cooking the sugar

In a copper pan or a cast iron pan, boil the water with the sugar.  When the temperature is around 116C  (or 240F) , add the pecan nuts. (240F is a bit more than boiling water= 100C)

2.b. Cooking the nuts

Make sure the nuts are all covered with the syrup, and let them cook for another 20 minutes.  Keep them moving around with a wooden spoon so they don’t burn.  Soon, the sugar will start to caramelize.

At the end of this, the nuts will be brightly sugar coated and have a auburn color.

Then put them on a cold baking sheet covered with parchment paper and let them cool off rapidly.

You can also cook almands, or pistachios, or macademias just like it.  The left overs, you can use in salads, desserts and so much more.

3. The Brownie Dough

Au bain-marie, you melt the half salted butter with 125 gr. of black chocolat.

In the mean time, whisk the eggs together with the white sugar until it starts to foam. (you can do that in your kitchen robot).

Then pour on top of this the melted chocolat and the butter, add the flour and mix.

Add the chopped up chocolate and the chopped up Pecan nuts.

Mix this all well, and then pour this dough into a baking sheet 18x10cm, or a round mold (18cm diameter). Make sure the bottom and the sides are greased with butter and then being powdered with brown sugar.

4. Finishing and baking the brownie

Pour the top of the brownie with 100 gr of the Streusel Cacao, and then put the brownie into the refrigerator for an hour.  In the meantime, preheat your oven to 160C (320F) and bake the brownie for 18 minutes.

I’m going to try this tomorrow evening.

Curious how it will turn out.

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