Macadamia & Chocolate Brownies

Leftover sour cream and nuts in the fridge.. Chocolate in the cupboard.. Ooh it's brownie time - yeah! Well... that's something along the lines of what I was thinking last night when I made my favourite brownie recipe. My sugar intake is definitely less than it used to be, but I think I love baking too much to cut sugar out altogether for good. I guess there has to be a healthy balance :)

I love using macadamia nuts instead of walnuts in my brownies.. Somehow I've never been much of a fan of walnuts in brownies... I think it tastes weird. Anway, here's how to whip up these bad boys. I served mine with a little cream instead of icing- after already having used a quarter of a kilo chocolate in the brownie I thought they were just fine without extra choc on top, but it's up to you :)


Ingredients
30g butter
250g dark chocolate, broken into pieces
80g unsalted butter, extra
2 tsp vanilla essence
1c soft brown sugar, firmly packed (a bit less if you don't like things too sweet)
2 eggs
1/2 c plain flour
1/2 c chopped roasted macadamia nuts
1/3 c sour cream
Icing: 125g dark chocolate, 60g unsalted butter

Method
1. Preheat oven to 180 degree celcious and grease and line a brownie pan, or a small rectangular pan.
2. With a heatproof bowl placed over a pot over simmering water (not touching the bowl), melt the butter then add chocolate and stir over low heat until the chocolate is just melted. Remove bowl from pot and set aside for a ouple of minutes.
3. Meanwhile, beat the extra butter along with the sugar and vanilla essence until light and fluffy.
4. Beat in eggs one at a time.
5. Stir in sifted flour, then chocolate mixture, nuts and the sour cream.
6. Transfer mixture to pan and smooth.
7. Bake for 45 minutes and cool in pan.
8. To prepare the icing, melt the chocolate and butter over simmering water then cool to room temperature and beat until thick and spreadable. Spread over the cooked brownie.

Enjoy :)


Ladybird x