Tuesday 3 April 2012

Chocolate Chip Olive Oil Brownies

While I plan my Easter baking, the family still needs treats in the cake tin. These brownies should keep them satisfied for a few days.

I tried this recipe, from Cookie Madness,  a while back, and while it was generally pretty good, there were a couple of points which let it down, the main one being there was just too little batter for the baking tin size, giving shallow, mean looking brownies. I wrote at the time that half as much batter again, in the same sized tin, would be a big improvement, so that's what I did this time. I also used a proportion of dark muscovado sugar, to try to make the brownies denser and chewier, and I think this worked too. Finally, I took out the nuts and added a mix of equal parts of white, milk and plain chocolate.

The result was very good - dense moist brownies, with an almost truffle-like texture; just the right depth, and with the light papery surface that good brownies need. I think I might have just cracked brownies made with oil here!

Ingredients
150g plain chocolate - at least 70% cocoa solids
120ml extra virgin olive oil
3 large eggs
130g caster sugar
100g dark muscovado sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
105g plain flour
105 g chopped chocolate - 35g each of white, milk and plain

Method
Pre-heat oven to 180C and prepare an 8"(20cm) square tin.
Melt the chocolate in a bowl over hot water, the whisk in the olive oil.
Beat the eggs, sugars and vanilla extract for 5 minutes, then fold in the chocolate mix.
Fold in the flour, then stir in the chopped chocolate.
Transfer to the baking tin, and bake for 25 minutes, or until a test probe is just clean (a few moist crumbs clinging is ideal).
Cool completely in the tin before cutting into bars and removing.

8 comments:

Caroline said...

They look pretty perfect to me - you must be really pleased to have cracked another classic in an oil incarnation! I bet CT is very pleased too!

Unknown said...

I love that dense/moistness that you only get from brownies... you can almost taste the butteryness... divine.

Hungryhinny said...

These look great - I'm so with you on brownies needing to be thick, thin ones just don't get the same dense fudgeyness!

MissCakeBaker said...

They look to have a gorgeous texture. I like the idea of using olive oil - so much better than all of the usual butter.

Phil in the Kitchen said...

They look just right to me. I knew you'd find the brownie answer.

Baking Addict said...

These look really good - thanks for the tips, will have to give this a go one day.

Hazel - Chicken in a Cherry Sauce said...

I definitely want to give these a try with your description of "almost truffle-like texture" - heaven!

Happy Easter :)

Chele said...

Great recipe development, they look like just the proper kind of brownies to have a with a wee cuppa.