Dark Chocolate Almond Brownies Recipe

When I saw those cute brownies at Jugalbandi’s place I knew that I will be making it very very soon. Though, I am not big fan of brownies itself but He does love anything with dark chocolates. He can finish off anything that includes dark chocolates. He never forget to say his usual line that…”the dark chocolate is best thing and can lift up my dull mood instantly. Okay! I have v.very easy idea to please him. ;)

Did you know the dark chocolates and cocoa have far more antioxidants than blueberries, green tea and red wine.

For me, I love the plain chocolate only and I can eat only one or two pieces at a time. Nope! even the best chocolates from Belgium or Swiss don’t melt my heart!  ;) I am a Vanilla gal instead! :) Yes…yes I can eat Vanilla ice-cream every other day. :) Since in this recipe, both Vanilla and dark chocolate are being married so I happily made it. :D I did adjust the taste to suit our (my!) taste-buds. I have completely omitted the chocolate chips, instead I used the toasted -chopped almonds for a nutty flavour.

But wait…I must warn you that you need a lot of muscle power to mix the batter. I think I should have used my hand-held mixture or food processor. You may use your food-processor (with setting batter blade) or hand-hand mixture. If you have any, feel free to use to mix the batter.

Remember you have to just mix and stir the ingredients on low speed using your processor or mixture and take care not to over mix or whisk. I have both gadgets in my kitchen but I didn’t know that it would take my loads of energy. However, my efforts were paid off. We truly enjoyed these brownies. I would definitely try it again as my hubby totally loved it.

I closely followed the original recipe except I did have minor changes with ingredients. Okay! Ready to go…

Recipe: Dark Chocolate Almond Brownies

Recipe Source: Jugalbandi and epicurious

Ingredients:

8 oz (approx 225 grams) fine quality dark chocolates -roughly chopped ~ I used Nestle 70% Cocoa
6 tbsp Unsalted Butter
6 tbsp Unsweetened Apple Sauce ~ I used home made Apple Sauce
3/4 C Sugar (less or more)
1/2 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract
4 Large Eggs
1/2 tsp Salt
3/4 C Whole wheat pastry flour or AP flour (I used AP flour) + 1/4 C Ground Almond
1 tsp Unsweetened Cocoa powder
1 tsp Instant espresso or Coffee powder
1 tbsp Cognac, Coffee liqueur or brandy – optional (I didn’t use any)
1 C bittersweet Chocolate Chips ~ I used toasted -chopped almonds (optional)
For toppings - Sliced almonds

How to:

1. Preheat the oven 350° F. Line an aluminium foil in 12 x 9″ baking pan. (mine baking pan was 30cm x19 cm). In a big bowl, melt the chocolates, butter and applesauce using double boiler. Stirring continuously until the mixture is smooth and silky. Remove from the heat. While it is still lukewarm, add the sugar, vanilla and liqueur if using. Mix it well.

2. To this, add the eggs, one at a time. Add in the salt, cocoa powder, coffee powder. Now add the flours in 3-4 instalments. Mix the batter until incorporated. I used my silicon spatula. Finally mix in toasted-chopped almonds or chocolate chips. And garnish with the sliced almonds on top of it.

3. Tip the batter into prepared baking pan and tap the pan against the kitchen counter to release the air bubbles. Bake it in the middle of a preheated oven for 25 mins or until a tester comes out clean. (Mine was ready in 22 mins.) Take it out once it’s done and cool it completely on wire rack. Remove the foil and cut it into bars.

Store them in the refrigerator for 4-5 days.

I enjoyed it with Buttermilk ice-cream and my hubby loved it cooled and without ice-cream. I prefer warm brownies so I would microwave it for 15-17 seconds. Yum!

They were very delicious and heavenly! Thank you Jugalbandi. :)

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