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Baking, Desserts, easy

Insanely Good Chocolate Almond Brownies

June 4, 2012

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These brownies were baked twice over the weekend. These are the sort that make people have a bite and go ‘swooooon’ or fall in love with you, or both. If you’ve been a follower of my blog, you know that I rarely use superlatives. I had blogged another simple brownie recipe a few years ago and I called them ‘Easiest to make brownies’ – so when I call these ‘insanely good‘ you must know that I am not kidding you. I have resolved to bake these only for others as I, for one, can’t seem to stop at a few bites because the taste of this is like nirvana to my soul.

It’s quite ridiculously good by itself but serving it warm with cold vanilla ice cream is like the literal icing on the cake. Unlike cakes that come with a lot of ways they can go wrong, this one, if you follow the recipe, is quite foolproof and everyone needs one good brownie recipe that can say “Thanks”, “Sorry“, “I love you“, “I want to be your most favourite person” or even, “I want you to become fatter than me“, etc. You know what I mean…these brownies can speak volumes when words fail you 🙂

Before you think I’m that sort of culinary genius who comes up with brownie recipes that can lead to world peace, please hold that thought. This is adapted from Dorie Greenspan’s recipe from her book, Baking: From My Home to Yours, with some tricks from baking forums to overcome the problems I faced with the first batch I baked.

If you’ve baked brownies with butter before and after baking, you might have found that all the butter oozed out of the brownie. Not that this will affect the taste or texture once the brownie is chilled enough in the fridge, but there is a technique by which you can avoid it. This often happens when the flour in the recipe is very less like the one here (just 1/4 cup of flour), so when you incorporate all the ingredients, you need to stir well to emulsify the mix so that the butter is well blended into the rest of the mix. I used this trick in the second batch and it turned out just perfect.

Recipe for Chocolate Almond Brownies

Makes 16 two inch squares

Skill level: Easy-Moderate easy

Insanely Good Chocolate Almond Brownies

These brownies were baked twice over the weekend. These are the sort that make people have a bite and go 'swooooon' or fall in love with you, or both. If you've been a follower of my blog, you know that I rarely use superlatives. I had blogged another simple brownie recipe a few years ago and I call
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 20 minutes mins
Cook Time 30 minutes mins
Total Time 50 minutes mins
Servings: 8 serving
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients
  

  • 8 tbsps Butter (100gm + 1 tbsp)
  • 1/2 cup Cocoa Powder
  • 2 eggs large .
  • 1 cup sugar .
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract .
  • 1 tbsp coffee liquor (optional).
  • 1/4 cup all purpose flour (maida).
  • 1/4 tsp cinnamon powder
  • Pinch salt .
  • 1 tsp coffee instant powder
  • 1/2 - 3/4 cup almonds almonds sliced or chopped

Method
 

  1. Centre a rack in the oven and preheat oven to 160 degrees celsius / 325F.
  2. Lightly grease with butter an 8" square tin / baking tray, line with baking paper / parchment paper.
  3. Grease this with butter properly and keep aside.
  4. In a large microwave safe bowl, place the chopped butter and microwave for 50 seconds to a minute until it's just melted.
  5. Let this butter cool down for a bit, meanwhile get all the other ingredients.
  6. In a small bowl, mix the flour, cinnamon powder, salt, coffee powder with a fork.
  7. To the melted butter, add the cocoa powder and stir very well with a silicon / rubber spatula mixing them well together.
  8. To this, add the eggs, one by one, mixing them well into the mixture. No need to beat and incorporate air into this. Mix in the sugar.
  9. Add the vanilla extract and coffee liquor. Liquor is optional but it does take the taste to a whole new level. IIf you don't have coffee liquor add an extra table spoon of coffee powder.
  10. Now, add the flour-cinnamon-salt-coffee mix to this and stir well for 2 minutes or so in a round motion to emulsify the mix well (so that butter doesn't ooze out after baking).
  11. Final step is to add the nuts and chocolate bits. Fold them in and scrape the brownie batter into the parchment lined baking tin.
  12. Bake for 25 minutes until the top appears papery.

Notes

Note:
Do not ignore the following instructions to get perfect pieces.
Remove from oven and cook in the baking tin itself on a rack, for at least 30 minutes.
Slice into 16 squares (2 inches X 2 inches each) - remove from lining paper, place on a tray and chill for 2-3 hours minimum for a fantastic fudgy texture.
Thank you, my dear NA for allowing me to borrow this book and keep it with me for long enough to get inspired to bake with one stick butter.
Dorie Greenspan calls these brownies Tribute-To-Katherine-Hepburn Brownies. If you want to know the connection between Katherine Hepburn and these brownies, check here.
If you want to have sneak peeks into my kitchen, regular updates on the goof-ups great stuff i cook, well before it appears on the blog, do stalk follow my Facebook page : http://www.facebook.com/saffrontrail.
by Nandita Iyer 
26 Comments

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Comments

  1. Anonymous says: June 4, 2012 at 12:14 pm

    Thanks for a great blog, i visit it alot! (: I have just started up my own healthy food blog, maybe you would take a look? Thanks!happymeanshealthy.blogspot.dk

    Reply
  2. village girl says: June 4, 2012 at 12:41 pm

    Yummy! 

    Reply
  3. Anonymous says: June 4, 2012 at 1:47 pm

    Lovely recipe..yum

    Reply
  4. Anonymous says: June 4, 2012 at 4:39 pm

    Super quick post. Appreciate all the painstaking tips you put together. Of course, I need to try this out with an egg substitute, but tell you what, I’ll get back to you (only) if it works out fine…Keep posting such winner recipes.Rajani.

    Reply
  5. Anonymous says: June 4, 2012 at 4:41 pm

    Ah, well, I meant tips put together with care

    Reply
  6. nandita says: June 4, 2012 at 4:56 pm

    I got what you mean. I had a bit of a problem the first time, hence shared it so that people wont have to go through the same thing when they make it. The original recipe said ‘dont stir much’ which actually makes the butter ooze out post baking.

    Reply
  7. Anonymous says: June 4, 2012 at 7:53 pm

    yumm… love the fudgy chocolaty brownies… Nice handy tips. Thanks for sharing.

    Reply
  8. Anonymous says: June 6, 2012 at 10:50 am

    lovely fudge. yummy..

    Reply
  9. Anonymous says: June 6, 2012 at 11:05 pm

    This looks insanely good…have to try it out this weekend

    Reply
  10. Anonymous says: June 19, 2012 at 9:36 am

    So I recently went on a brownie craze! trying to find the perfect recipe; which I thought I did! But I’m sure to give this one a try, they look simply divine! namrata-noted.blogspot.in

    Reply
  11. Anonymous says: June 21, 2012 at 6:27 am

    This looks so yummy.. What egg substitute can be used to make these? I don’t eat eggs.. can you suggest any?

    Reply
  12. Anonymous says: June 25, 2012 at 8:28 am

    Hey nandita.. Just one question-which brand of cocoa powder do you use? My cakes don’t end up tasting as chocolatey as I want them to be!

    Reply
  13. Anonymous says: June 26, 2012 at 9:14 am

     Can brownies be baked in a microwave? Is microwave good for baking?

    Reply
  14. Anonymous says: July 4, 2012 at 4:25 am

    Fudgy brownies are the best and yours do look insanely good! 

    Reply
  15. May I Have That Recipe says: July 17, 2012 at 7:30 pm

    We’re not going to lie…we are actually chocoholics and we can’t wait to dive headfirst into this recipe of chocolatey goodness 🙂

    Reply
  16. Anonymous says: July 26, 2012 at 7:23 pm

    Saffron should be there in it.I buy only pure saffron from india Buy Saffron India

    Reply
  17. Anonymous says: August 2, 2012 at 4:25 am

    Lovely dish in lovely space.. Glad to follow u…http://recipe-excavator.blogspot.com

    Reply
  18. Vimitha Anand says: August 2, 2012 at 3:33 pm

    Looks sinfully delicious….

    Reply
  19. Nandita Iyer says: August 3, 2012 at 5:15 pm

    Perfect brownies, some how I have always failed to bake THE PERFECT BROWNIES for my kids, thanks for recipe I am surely going to try this out, I have freakingly crazy brownie loving kids at home 🙂

    Reply
  20. Anonymous says: September 9, 2012 at 6:42 pm

    hi….i accidently stumbled upon your blog….n im glad i did….super blog and n jus tried making your choco almond brownies…they were simply delicious…thanks n looking forward to try your other recipes too..

    Reply
  21. Anonymous says: February 6, 2013 at 10:56 am

    The visit was useful. Content was really very informative.Thanks for sharing. from – chennaiflowers.com

    Reply
  22. Anonymous says: March 4, 2013 at 11:36 am

    Nice post.Contents was really good.thanks for sharing.chennaiflowers.com

    Reply
  23. Anonymous says: March 18, 2013 at 11:20 am

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    Reply
  24. Anonymous says: July 6, 2013 at 6:06 am

    Hey Nandita,Tried these today and they are yummmm.. Just had a quick question. Can we leave them in the fridge overnight or will they get very dry if left in the fridge for a long time.Thanks, Priya

    Reply
  25. nandita says: July 6, 2013 at 6:09 am

    They in fact taste better and fudgier after sitting in the fridge or even in the freezer! Thank you for trying them Priya.

    Reply
  26. Anonymous says: April 18, 2014 at 6:31 am

    Brownie with ice cream is my favorite. I loved the recipe. i ll try this.

    Reply

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