Let me be honest here. As I mentioned previously, I am not a chocolate lover. However, there are these days when my energy needs to get higher and I am very much in a mood for chocolate. As noted in The Juicy Pear & Chocolate Slice Recipe, I am trying to challenge myself of pleasing my father on his Birthday. He is a top critic and the extreme chocolate lover. Sexy Chocolate Brownie with Pecans is a guarantee of well done comfort food. Furthermore, it is quite easy to make it.
The inspiration came from the Czech Magazine ‘Apetit’. It is a humble fulfilling chocolate tart and it isn’t too heavy. The secret is pecans and very slow baking. Even though it needs time to bake through, it stays perfectly moist. This is an ideal dessert for cold winter days.
In conclusion, let me wish you all a healthy and joyful year 2017. Let’s start the New Year properly, with a blast.
Total Time: 2 hours 30 minutes
Shopping List
200g of good quality 70% dark chocolate
250g of butter, in cubes
4 whole eggs
290g of icing sugar, sifted + decorating
185g of plain flour, sifted
1 teaspoon of baking powder, sifted
35g of good quality cocoa powder, sifted
Few handfuls of pecans to decorate
Instructions
First, melt the chocolate in a steam bath. Break it into a medium deep pot, together with all the butter.
Mix until it becomes a smooth and shiny texture. Afterwards, place in a cold bath to cool it down for a bit.
Preheat the oven to 120 degrees.
Place the eggs and icing sugar into a large mixing bowl.
Start mixing on lower speed until incorporated well. Then, increase the speed to the highest. Whisk for about 4 minutes until it whitens and doubles its size.
Stir in the flour with baking powder, cocoa powder and melted chocolate mix. Mix with a spatula until you get a beautiful homogeneous texture.
Mold the mixture into a spring cake pan (I used 24cm) lined with some baking paper.
Bake in the oven for about 2 hours until it gets nicely firm and a wooden skewer comes clean for the middle.
Then, let it cool down entirely. Decorate with the pecans on the top and sprinkle with some icing sugar. Serve with a cup of coffee or tea and keep it in a cold place (preferably not in the fridge).
Makes 10 serves.