Double chocolate pecan brownie

Brownie

For Oscar night, I made these dense brownies. They disappeared very fast. The "double chocolate" part comes from the fact that there are two whole 100 gram (or 3 1/2 oz.) dark chocolate bars in it.

This is an extremely easy recipe. I don't even bother to chop the pecans with a knife; I just bash them in the bag. Same with the chocolate. For this reason, this would be a really fun thing for kids to make I think.

You can use chocolate chips instead of the bashed up chocolate bars, but I do like having some big chunks in there. The chunks melt while baking, and stay melted within the brownie, forming gooey pockets of pure chocolate. Also, the key to this brownie is to have the meanest, darkest chocolate you can stand.

You can substitute walnuts for the pecans.

Double Chocolate Pecan Brownies

  • 2 100g / 3 1/2 oz. dark chocolate bars, with a high cacao content (70% and higher makes for a really intense experience)
  • 3 large eggs
  • 125g / 4 oz (1 stick) of unsalted butter
  • 1/4 cup plain flour
  • 1/4 cup cocoa powder
  • 150g / about 4 oz pecan halves (about 1 cup)
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/2 cup white sugar
  • 1/2 cup light brown sugar
  • Equipment: a 9 x 9 inch or 25 x 25cm cake/brownie pan

Preheat the oven to 160 ° C / about 350 ° F. Line your brownie pan with a silicon baking sheet or butter and flour it.

Bash the chocolate bars, still in their wrappers, hard against a counter top or table until they are in small pieces. If the wrapper breaks, put the chocolate in a plastic bag and bang away. Bash the pecans in the same way. You want the nuts to be fairly chunky still, not pulverized.

Melt the butter and one of the chocolate bars over a low heat, stirring, until completely melted. In the meantime, combine the flour, cocoa and salt. Add this to the melted butter and chocolate. Add the sugars and blend well. Take off the heat and allow to cool a bit.

Add the eggs and mix well until combined. Stir in the pecans and the rest of the chocolate, and pour the batter into the brownie pan, and bake for about 40 minutes.

Let cool and cut into 16 squares.

Submitted by maki on 2005-03-01 01:15.
Filed under:  chocolate dessert baking nuts

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Comments

Isaack

1 March, 2005 - 01:57

This is actually also a very delicious chocolate cake. Notice the 6 eggs and no flour.
And if you go high quality on the ingridients it can be rather expensive, but truly worth it!
http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/2004/05/13/two_nuts_chocola.php

My experience with the recipe,
http://www.isaack.info/archives/2004/11/18/chocolate-cake-thumbs-up/

maki

1 March, 2005 - 08:23

Wow, I'd never seen that Jamie Oliver recipe before. Thanks!

My brownie recipe is sort of derived from a "chocolate walnut brownie" in the I Love New York Cookbook (it's supposed to be Katherine Hepburn's recipe). Though that one did not have cocoa, had 2 eggs, no chocolate chunks...so mine is quite a bit richer :) I am not sure how it would fare as a cake recipe with just mixing in the eggs...I would somehow want a cake to be lighter. I notice that Jamie's recipe has the classic torte ingredient, ground almonds, in it...that would make it quite intense.

Isaack

1 March, 2005 - 17:49

Yeah, and that's a good description of it... "intense".

But you are right, I was kinda nervous too before making it. Though I'm right now in age, where I don't have to worry that much about eating too much and so on. It's still worryingly :)

But a rich taste is what it's all about :)

Btw. for your receipe... how much is a "cup" ? I see that you've spend quite a bit of time in Europe, is it like 1.5dl?

maki

4 March, 2005 - 11:11

A U.S. cup is about 250ml..though the amount of pecans in these brownies isn't that precise. :)

Penny

4 March, 2005 - 19:26

Hello! *waves... WOW, that looks awesome! How I wish I was there!! :P

Marilyn

14 March, 2005 - 02:02

This recipe is missing two ingredients that I consider absolutely essential to any brownie recipe:

Instant coffee power. Try adding at least 3 tablespoons of instant espresso (best) or coffee powder - not granules, which don't dissolve as easily to the butter and chocolate and can make the brownies grainy. Some people do like do prefer crunch, however. If you want more of a mocha experience, increase the coffee and add a little more butter

Vanilla - must be good quality "real" vanilla extract, not the chemical tasing artificial stuff. Add at least a tablespoon to the chocolate after it's been melted with the butter and coffee.

Both the coffee and vanilla are excellent flavor enhancers that add tremendous resonance to the chocolate. Without them, the Katherine Hepburn recipe and its variations taste too much like the boxed stuff.

Try it, you'll like it!

Wynke

19 March, 2006 - 13:30

Hm, lovely recipe! The consistency of the batter rather surprised me - it was the first time I made brownies 'from scratch' and hadn't expected the batter to seem so gloopy/sticky. But the brownies turned out great.

You probably hear this every day, but I love your site :)

Heidi

3 January, 2009 - 05:48

I have made these several times before and it has become my favorite brownie recipe. They never last for more than a couple of days :) I made them for a New Year party this week and was considering adding vanilla to them but didn't. I think I will next time and see how different it tastes.

The thing I love most about these is the intense chocolate taste and that they are not sugary.

And they even taste good when you bake them in a toaster oven and accidentally burn the surface in places from being too close to the top of the oven...

Heidi

3 January, 2009 - 05:49

I have made these several times before and it has become my favorite brownie recipe. They never last for more than a couple of days :) I made them for a New Year party this week and was considering adding vanilla to them but didn't. I think I will next time and see how different it tastes.

The thing I love most about these is the intense chocolate taste and that they are not sugary.

And they even taste good when you bake them in a toaster oven and accidentally burn the surface in places from being too close to the top of the oven...

Girl Eats in Paris

9 January, 2011 - 21:02

This recipe is good and similar to one I used to use...however if you really want to up the ante on the Chocolate try this recipe :

http://girleatsinparis.blogspot.com/2011/01/2011-will-be-rich-and-intens...

It has 450g of Chocolate!!!!!!

Dolores

23 September, 2015 - 20:19

This is deliciuos!!and so easy..I used chocolate with cherries.