Chocolate Chestnut Squares
I’ve gone back to the book that started off this whole blog, Patisserie: Mastering the Fundamentals of French Pastry. Some of the recipes in Christophe Felder’s books are a little dated now, but I found this recipe for chocolate brownies and I thought I’d give it a try.
I’m reluctant to call these brownies, as I’m a bit of a brownie purist and I believe they should be packed full of chocolate and just cooked through so they are gorgeous and fudgy. This recipe is delicious and while it has some of the fudgelike qualities of a good brownie, I feel like calling it a brownie is a bit of a stretch. So I’ve called them chocolate chestnut squares.
The cake layer is packed full of hazelnuts and then spread with a layer of the most delicious chestnut spread. I got my jar from Lina Stores in London, it’s a mix of chocolate, chestnut and rum and I can’t wait to use it more in my baking.
The squares are then topped with a blend of dark chocolate mixed with a little oil to keep it soft and add to the overall texture.
The recipe for these couldn’t be easier, but if you want a great recipe for a more traditional brownie, try these Supernatural Brownies by Michelle from Hummingbird High. I made them last week for my colleagues to mark 10 years in my job and they went down a treat!
I know my updates haven’t been very frequent recently, but I’ve just been busy in so many different directions. I have been cooking, but I havn’t had a chance to get anything written up and put on the blog.
I’ve missed writing here, so here’s the recipe for you and here’s to some more frequent updates.
- ***Cake***
- 150g Dark Chocolate 70% Cocoa
- 100g Unsalted Butter
- 100g Caster Sugar
- 2 Eggs
- 40g Plain Flour, sifted
- 2 Tbsp Instant Coffee Granules
- 50g Hazelnuts, chopped
- ***Topping***
- 100g Chestnut Spread
- 1 Tbsp flavourless oil
- 100g Dark Chocolate 70% Cocoa
- Preheat the oven to 160C Fan/180C, and grease and line a 23cm square cake tin.
- Melt the chocolate and butter together in a pan over a low heat, making sure they don't burn at all.
- Mix the eggs and caster sugar together until they are light and combined, add the coffee and mix evenly.
- Add the melted chocolate and butter to the egg mixture and stir to combine.
- Sift in the flour and fold gently making sure all of the flour is mixed in, add the hazelnuts, give it a final stir and place it all in the prepared pan and back for 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the cake.
- Leave the cake to cool in the tin, when the cake is completely cool, peel off the greaseproof paper and stand the cake on a board or cake rack.
- Spread the chestnut spread over the top of the cake in a thin even layer.
- Take the chocolate and put in it a bowl and stand it over a pan of barely simmering water.
- Melt the chocolate, but don't let it get too hot, stir in the oil until the two have mixed together.
- Take the chocolate mix and pour it over the top of the cake, spread it thinly with a knife and then place the cake in the fridge for around 15mins for the chocolate to set, so that the cake can be cut.
- When the chocolate topping has set, trim the edge of the cake and then cut it neatly into 16 squares.
Angela