recipe: white chocolate and almond brownies

Having decided I wanted to bake yesterday, the post-holiday baking cupboard was fairly bare and I struggled to find a recipe. I wanted something chocolatey, cookies or brownies, but didn't have any milk or dark chocolate, only white, and the only caster sugar I could find was a rather crumpled bag of the golden variety hidden at the back of the cupboard.

I scoured recipe books and then discarded them, disgruntled, when my search was fruitless. Even my trusted BBC food website didn't have a recipe to meet my somewhat specific requirements. In the end I typed cocoa powder, white chocolate, and golden caster sugar into Google, and this recipe from The Happy Egg Company appeared.  It ticked all of the boxes and so, after catching up with some blogs I decided to go and bake a batch based on the recipe. If I was more organised blogger I would have a picture of a box of their eggs, and I do quite often buy them, but not this week, so eggshells it is.

During my hunt for recipes this article came up, who knew there was so much brownie debate. For what it's worth, my view is that brownies should be dense and chewy with a crunchy top. I don't want a brownie to be like a cake, I definitely prefer them to to be fudgy and rich. I also think that they should have plenty of chunks in them, the bigger the better, and so I often bash my chocolate with a rolling pin to make large pieces rather than chopping it.

I also added almonds for some extra texture, though these could have stood chopping in half, as the whole almonds were a little big and tended not to slice well when the brownie was cooked. The recipe included a decorative drizzle of white chocolate on the top, but I decided against that. Partly because it looked a bit delicate, and I tend to think of brownies as being simple and stodgy rather than fancy, and also partly because I was being lazy.

Perhaps I should have done the drizzle, as brownies are impossible to photograph well, or at least these were, with my amateur skills, hence the photos of broken egg shells and Millie looking longingly. It was an easy recipe, one bowl only, and took a matter of minutes to make. They turned out exactly how I liked them too, a lovely crisp crust on top, and warm just out of the oven they were delicious, without being too rich. This makes about 20 good sized portions or 30 mini ones, depending how you like to cut them, or in my case, plenty to break off a piece when no one is looking and still have enough left to share with the family.

White Chocolate and Almond Brownies

Adapted from The Happy Egg Company

Makes 20 large servings, or 30 mini ones, Prep time 15 minutes, Cooking time 20-25 minutes

Ingredients

50g butter, softened

350g golden caster sugar

4 medium eggs

75g unsweetened cocoa powder

100g self raising flour

100g white chocolate, broken into chunks

75g whole, blanched almonds, chopped in half

1 tbspn milk

Recipe

• Preheat oven to  Gas mark 4, 180°C, 350°F. 
• Line a 23cm x 33cm baking tin (or similar) with baking paper.
• Combine butter, sugar, eggs, flour, cocoa powder and flour in a large bowl and mix thoroughly until it forms a smooth, thick batter.
• Add the white chocolate, almonds and milk, stir well to distribute the chocolate and almonds throughout the mixture.
• Pour mixture into the tin and place in oven for 20-25 minutes, or until a skewer or knife inserted into the brownies comes out clean. The brownies should have a firm, crusty top.
• Allow to cool in tin for a few minutes and then turn onto cooling rack. Slice and enjoy warm or cold.