Chocolate and Nut Brownies with a Salted Pretzel Base

I got the recipe for the pretzel base of these brownies from a friend at work who's an amazing baker, and the brownie topping is my go-to brownie recipe - always delicious and very versatile; add whatever combination of chocolate pieces and nuts you want. If you like salted caramel you'll love these! They are totally worth the two step process, and a great twist on a classic.

Chocolate and Nut Brownies with a Salted Pretzel Base

Makes 24 pieces

Blitzed pretzels

Ingredients:

Pretzel Base:

65g plain flour

150g salted pretzels

100g dark brown sugar

100g unsalted butter

125g golden syrup

Brownie Topping:

250g chocolate (a mixture of dark and milk, depending on what you prefer)

250g unsalted butter

4 large eggs

175g dark Muscavado sugar

Pretzel base before baking

1 tsp vanilla extract

75g plain flour

0.25tsp baking powder

1 tbsp cocoa powder

200g chopped nuts (I used pecans and hazelnuts)

100g chopped chocolate (again; dark, milk or white chocolate)

Pinch of salt

Oven at 180oC fan/190oC electric

Method:

1. Blitz the pretzels in a food processor, or crush the end of a rolling pin, then add the flour and mix together.

2. In a pan over a medium heat, mix the butter sugar and syrup in a pan and stir until the butter has melted and everything is combined.

3. Add to the pretzels to the butter mix and mix together until combined.

Baked base

4. Press the mix into a lined and greased baking tray and bake in the centre of a preheated oven at 180oC for 10-15 mins.

5. Whilst the base is baking make the brownies; heat the butter and 250g of chocolate over a bain marie until smooth.

6. In a separate bowl, combine the eggs, Muscavado sugar and vanilla extract. Whisk until the mix is pale and thick.

7. To the egg mix, add the flour, cocoa, baking powder, chopped nuts and chocolate and salt. Stir gently until smooth.

8. Once it’s cooled slightly, carefully add the melted butter and chocolate to the egg and flour mix, taking care not over mix or the chocolate will seize and go grainy.

Egg Mix

9. Once the pretzel base is cooked, pour the brownie mix over the top and return to the oven for a further 20-25 minutes.

10. To test the brownie use a skewer or sharp knife; you want to take the brownies out of the oven when the skewer comes out slightly dirty still, so your brownies will still be fudgy once they’ve cooled.

11. Once baked leave to cool and set in the tin. Cut into 24 pieces and serve - they're great warm out of the oven with vanilla ice cream...

Ready for the oven!

These will keep for 3 or 4 days in an airtight container, but they definitely won’t hang around long enough for you to find that out!

Happy Baking!

The Baking Ginger xx

Pretzel Brownie Stack for Mum's Birthday :)

Chewy Chocolate and Nut Cookies

Baked and ready to be eaten!

I made these at the same time as the Salted Nutella Cookies and I've got to admit, I think I prefer these; I'm a big fan of nuts in anything...

The trick to making them really chewy is the light muscovado sugar, if you've only got white sugar that'll work too, your cookies just won't be so chewy and gooey!

They'd work really nicely for elevenses, as part of a spread for afternoon tea, or hot from the oven with loads of vanilla ice cream - yum!

Chewy Chocolate and Nut Cookies

Makes 20 large cookies

Ingredients

Mixture with nuts and chocolate

125g butter/marg

100g light muscovado sugar

125g caster sugar

1 egg

2tsp vanilla essence

225g self raising flour

small pinch of salt

100g chocolate pieces (I used white and milk chocolate)

100g nuts (I used chunks of almonds and hazelnuts)

170oC fan oven/180oC other ovens

Method

1. Cream the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl until light and fluffy - once you think you've done give it another minute or so of beating to make your cookies as light as possible!

2. Beat in the egg and vanilla essence in two goes until it's all combined. If it curdles don't worry, it'll come back together when you add the flour.

Ready for the oven

3. Add the flour and salt, and mix until just combined then mix in the nuts and chocolate.

4. Put the mix in the freezer for 10 minutes or fridge for an hour just to make it easier to work with - it will be a very very sticky dough!

5. Once the dough is chilled, using two dessert spoons, put a walnut size ball of dough onto a lined baking sheet. Make sure the dough balls have at least 3 inches between them as they will spread massively whilst baking.

6. Bake in the middle of a preheated oven for 9 minutes; they may look raw in the middle still but they'll continue to cook as they cool and you'll end up with a gorgeous, chewy cookie once they've cooled on a wire rack - although as usual they're best when still warm from the oven!

Finished article!

I used the chocolate and nut combinations that I like, but the basic dough recipe can be adapted to suit your tastes, they're really flexible and once you've made one combination you'll really want to try others! You could add lemon zest to mixture to make the cookies fresh and bring out the flavour of the nuts, it really works, and would be great with other citrus fruits too!

They'll keep for 4-5 days in an airtight container.

Happy Baking!

The Baking Ginger xx

Ginger, Nut and Chocolate Slices from Mull

Thought I'd add some more recipes from my baking for Mull; this is a really simple no bake slice, if you're a big ginger fan (and who isn't?!) you can add diced preserved stem ginger for extra gingery-ness.

Gingery nutty goodness!

Ginger, Nut and Chocolate Slices

Makes 24

Ingredients:

6oz marg/butter

1.5tbsp syrup

1.5tbsp cocoa

1.5tbsp sugar

8oz chopped hazelnuts

8oz ginger nut biscuits

8oz white chocolate

Method:

1. Melt the marg, syrup, cocoa and sugar in a pan over a medium heat, stirring regularly – but don’t let the mixture boil.
2. Put the biscuits in a food bag and bash with a rolling pin (hold onto the opening of the bag, but don’t tie it up or it’ll pop and you’ll be in for a whole world of crumbs!). Bash until the biscuits are in fine crumbs.
3. Once the marg mixture has melted add your biscuit crumbs and the chopped hazelnuts. Stir until they’re all combined then tip into a greased and lined baking tin (approx. 8x12 in) and compress using the back of a dessert spoon. Make sure to get into the corners of the tin, go around the edges and get a flat top to your ginger, nut and chocolate mix.
4. Chill in the fridge (4 hours) or freezer (2 hours).
5. Once the base is chilled break the white chocolate into small pieces and microwave in a microwaveable container until the chocolate has melted (stir regularly to make sure your chocolate doesn’t burn).
6. Pour the white chocolate over the chilled base and smooth out using a palette knife. Chill in the fridge until the chocolate has set (approx. 4 hours).
7. Cut into 24 pieces – it’s very rich so you don’t need much, and enjoy! It’s lovely for elevenses with a strong coffee.

These are so easy, you can't not give them a go!

Happy Baking!

The Baking Ginger xx