Wednesday 22 August 2012

Nutella Brownies with Jaggery by Jeanne


Nutella Brownies with Jaggery by Jeanne 
See update below!

I know, I know, there’s really no justification for Nutella brownies in an Indian recipe blog, but I instructed Jeanne to use jaggery powder (Punjabi raw cane sugar), so thus I dare to include these. 
As I’ve mentioned in the last few postings, Jeanne drove seven hours to visit me, and attend our barbershop barbecue, as she loves this style of music.  She kindly helped us to prepare for the party, and together we adapted this recipe for Nutella Brownies.  I first received the basis for this recipe through an email from my sister years ago, but I have no idea from where that originated. 

As you can see above, Jeanne is a much neater cook than I am, carefully placing ingredients into little containers beforehand, as opposed to my own slapdash and toss ‘em in method.

I rarely bake brownies, or other sweets, so I didn’t realize that the cooling off period is a good indicator of how gooey the brownies will be.  Jeanne, who bakes a lot, nearly went delirious with joy when she saw this recipe has a two hour cooling off period.  She knew they’d be killer gooey from that indicator, and they certainly are.  I found them a bit too buttery, but she frantically insisted that less butter would have made them too ordinary.  Ordinary they’re not: 
   
Gobbled up before a pic could be taken!
½ cup whole wheat flour
¼ teaspoon coarse salt (reserve some)
2 eggs
1 cup Nutella
½ cup jaggery powder (gur or raw cane sugar)
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ cup melted butter 

Preheat oven to 325F and line an 8 inch baking pan with parchment paper.  In one bowl mix flour and most of the salt.  In a mixing bowl, beat eggs at medium speed, then add nutella, jaggery and vanilla.  Slow the speed right down and alternately add the flour and melted butter.  Pour into the pan, and spread out with a spatula.  Sprinkle a few of the salt crystals across the top.  These must be very few and very far between.  It will be the lucky person who finds a single salt crystal on their brownie.  Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Jaggery Nutella Brownies
Actually, I just made these again this May 2014, but with a squidge more flour and a squat less butter.  They're not as squishy and dense as the recipe on this page.  Find the recipe for this pic at http://cardamombliss.blogspot.ca/2014/05/more-jaggery-nutella-brownies.html

Cool in pan for two hours, yes this is the magic number that indicates these brownies are especially gooey.  Cut into very small pieces, as they are so rich. 
Under no circumstances should you  even think of spreading icing on these.  They are already so flavour packed, sweet and gooey, that you’d taste nothing but the icing itself.  What a waste of delicious ingredients that would be!  Same goes with adding walnuts or other flavourings. 
I am normally one to gild the lily, but in this case, if you really must add something, limit it to perhaps some nice silver or if you have it, gold foil.  Not aluminum foil, but the pure beaten silver or gold foil that is edible and available in good Indian grocery stores.  Honestly, these beauties must be served as is!
Thanks once more to Jeanne for her fabulous culinary skills.  Anybody else want to come visit me?

In the absence of pictures owing to too much yakking and gobbling, I dare to include this treasure, found on Facebook, which in turn was found by Radhika at Tickling Palateshttps://www.facebook.com/#!/lechariotdedesserts  
For some strange reason, several food bloggers were alarmed when I posted on FB that I'd include this pic on my Nutella Brownies post.  But everyone knows that cherubs are the essence of the divine!  Only heavenly stuff can come from them...

Update: October 10, 2012  I'm finally getting around to saying that Jeanne's latest idea is to beat the jaggery into the liquids first, so that it's fully dissolved, and to add 2 tablespoons of good cocoa powder to the recipe!  I preferred the texture of the first recipe, but Jeanne likes this smoother, more chocolatey version!


8 comments:

  1. Sorry for the lack of pictures! I'll have to make them again soon, and force myself to photograph them before they're all gobbled! Your apple dessert looks fabulous, by the way. I've got the Liebster post half written. It should be up soon. Thanks again for the award!

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  2. love the last pic with flying bay and nutella. I have never hear of brownie with jaggery. very very interesting recipe. bookmarked it. will try it soon

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  3. Oh dear! They aren't flying babies. They are cherubs, a type of angel! In the Christian angel heirarchy, they're at the bottom, but they are angels, never the less. Where else could Nutella come from? Anyway, glad to see you bookmarked the recipe!

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  4. nice recipe...:)lovely pics...:)

    Dr.Sameena@

    www.myeasytocookrecipes.blogspot.com/

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    1. Thanks Sameena, I'll be keeping my eye on your blog to see if I can contribute. I don't usually make cupcakes, so I'm looking forward to next month's idea. Thanks for visiting my blog.

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  5. As always, Mary gives me too much credit. It's her recipe! I needed no encouragement to use jaggery, just the suggestion. I always substitute dark brown sugar for any sugar in a chocolate recipe - the flavor is fuller, the texture gooier - and jaggery is better yet. We ended up cutting these brownies into pieces the size of candy, like burfi, because they are so very rich. To reinforce Mary's advice, DON'T put icing on them - they would end up too gooey to handle, and the icing would interfere with the wondrous flavors.

    I don't have any objection to Nutella being cherub poop (Mary, stop reading here, or you'll get sick), but then I'm a country girl who helps slaughter and clean several kinds of meat animals. Cherub poop would be a welcome change!

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  6. Dear Jeanne, Your credit is deserved! I'm waiting for the episode of The Simpsons where Homer wanders around in his dream state, muttering the word "jagggg urrrr eee", the way I often do.

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