Another little gastronomic intermission for you today then. Made some pistachio brownies while we had our scary guests and they turned out rather good so seeing as I’m the laziest cook in the world and this is the easiest recipe, I thought I’d share. This is a bastardisation (can I say that?) of my mate C’s fantastically good brownie recipe and Rachel Allen’s one from ‘Rachel’s Favourite Food’, pared down for the incurably idle. There’s an excellent opportunity for some child labour here because the pistachios taste so much better if they’re the shell-on salted kind (trust me, the salt really works), so enlist the help of your small people to shell enough pistachios to end up with 4oz (don’t, by the way, enlist the help of your stupid greyhound - Bertie tried to get his nose into the bowl of shells and ended up smashing it on the floor - I’m still crunching on the occasional pistachio shell now - no of course I didn’t hoover - there’s no R in the month). They’ll love you for it, I promise. Next time I’m going to try this with the Green and Black’s Cherry chocolate and some almonds. Ooh, or the Butterscotch with some pecans…yum. Anyhoo, here goes:
A bar and a half (the big 150g ones - there’s no room for the parsimonious in brownie making, girl) of Green and Black’s 70% dark chocolate
6 oz butter
3 eggs
8 oz caster sugar
4 oz plain flour
4 oz shelled salted pistachio nuts (roughly chopped, or don’t bother if you’re really idle)
So, melt your butter and chocolate in a bain-marie (bowl over saucepan of simmering water - yes, I know you knew that, but just in case…). Take it straight off when it’s nearly there as you only need it just warm - you should be able to put your finger in it - any hotter and you’ll have scrambled eggs. So mix up the eggs and the sugar (you don’t need to whisk or anything, just until they’re combined), then add in the butter/chocolate mixture, the flour and the nuts. Bung it in a greaseproof paper-lined tin (I used my lasagne tin which is rectangular (11×7x1.5) and bake for about 35 mins at 180C/350F/gas 4 (sorry!!) until it looks all shiny and cracked on the top, but still deliciously squidgy in the middle. Cool, then stuff into face. Magic.
August 10th, 2007 at 5:16 pm
Some questions though: what temperature should I bake these lovely brownies at? (Was it just assumed that it was to be at 350 degrees C and I missed it?)
And when you say “mix up the eggs and sugar,” do you mean cream them together with a mixer until it’s all fluffy and stuff?
Thanks and I’ll let you know how they turn out =)
August 10th, 2007 at 7:29 pm
December 20th, 2007 at 6:18 am
I’m home for the holidays and I plan on making these again tomorrow… though I might have to double the recipe since last time they disappeared so fast! I’ll try and take a picture this time.
xo
December 20th, 2007 at 12:21 pm
Reckon you should try them with some chopped white chocolate stirred in at the last minute - you get lovely gooey bits all through them!! xx
December 27th, 2007 at 8:41 pm
Just wanted to note that I used dark chocolate with orange flavouring for one batch, plus I added in a bit of orange zest, and they turned out fabulous! They tasted like a Terry’s Chocolate Orange but better, if that’s even possible. If I find some cherry chocolate that’s my next choice!
Til next time xoxo