Chocolate Brownies with Pistachios
These Chocolate brownies, are one of America's favorite baked treats. These homemade brownies are easy to make, rich in chocolate flavour, they are crunchy on the outside and fudgy in the middle.
The brownie is classified as a bar cookie rather than a cake.
Would you believe that I have never made Brownies before? Well actually there are a lot of things I have not yet made and I am learning every day lots of new things.
I now know the difference between cookies and biscotti but now that I've made the brownies, my son tells me that although they are perfect they remind him of mud cake, which he tried in Australia. Is he right?
I have never made mud cake before so I wouldn't know the difference.
Anyway they tasted F A N T A S T I C !!!
I whipped up a heavy cream and made a lovely raspberry sauce to go with it.
I have now realized that when I like something a lot, I keep making it over and over again until I find something new to experiment with.
This time I have been making a lot of recipes with pistachios and after google searching for brownies and pistachio I found Michelle's recipe which sounded great.
I made a bigger batch with a few changes to the recipe.
Although Michelle says it makes 15, according to the amount of ingredients I used, I should have made at least twice but as you may see I only made 20 and believe me one piece was not enough.
Instead of adding dark chocolate, I used milk chocolate and added less sugar.
As usual, I did not stick to the method but followed a different approach in making the brownies.
Finally, I forgot to add the pistachios in the mixture, so I just sprinkled some on top before baking it.
Update: I've made them many times since then with or without nuts.
I served them with whipped cream, raspberry sauce and more pistachios on top. You can also serve them with ice cream.
Check out my Blondies recipe.
Raspberry Sauce
When I was in France I really enjoyed raspberries on cakes and desserts, so I tried to recreate a sauce to serve with desserts.
I had bought a berry syrup from France which I used together with a raspberry fruit preserve and raspberry jam.
I made this sauce a couple of weeks ago and used half of it on a cheesecake and preserved the remaining in the refrigerator.
Ingredients
1 Bonne Maman Raspberry jam
1 raspberry (framboises) fruit preserve with syrup
5 tablespoons of blackcurrant syrup
Directions
Add all ingredients in a small frying pan.
Bring to a boil and simmer until the sauce thickens.
When done there still will be chunks of raspberries in the sauce.
If you don't like having chunks of fruit in the sauce, you can puree it with a hand blender.
I am sending this recipe to Holler, of Tinned Tomatoes, who is hosting this month's No Croutons Required. This month's theme is a Taste of Christmas with either a picture of food, Christmas decorations, a wintery scene or maybe even your Christmas tree.
My cat Lisa and I wish all of you A Merry Christmas!!!
Chocolate Brownies with Pistachios
The brownies, one of America's favorite baked treats, was born in the U.S.A. The brownie is classified as a bar cookie rather than a cake.
Ingredients
- 250 grams milk chocolate
- 250 grams butter
- 400 grams granulated sugar
- 5 eggs
- 125 grams all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 200 grams unsalted roasted pistachios
Instructions
- Line a 38×32cm baking tin with baking parchment, allowing the paper to come 2 cm above the tin.
- Preheat the oven to 180°C / 350°F / gas mark 4.
- Roast the nuts in the preheated oven for 8 minutes.
- Meanwhile melt the butter and chocolate in a bain Marie. When it has almost melted, remove from the heat and stir until it completely melts as we do not want the chocolate to be hot.
- Beat the eggs with sugar until white and frothy and gradually add the melted chocolate, a spoonful at a time, while mixer is still on.
- Turn off the mixer and fold in the other ingredients with a spatula, until thoroughly mixed.
- Spread the mixture evenly into the prepared tin and sprinkle ⅔ of the nuts on top of the mixture and bake in the middle rack of the oven for 30 minutes or until it is slightly springy in the middle.
- Take the brownies out of the oven and allow them to cool for 15 minutes before
cutting them into the shape and size you prefer.
Nutrition Information
Yield 20 Serving Size 1Amount Per Serving Calories 332Total Fat 20gSaturated Fat 10gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 9gCholesterol 76mgSodium 258mgCarbohydrates 35gFiber 2gSugar 27gProtein 5g
"These values are automatically calculated and offered for guidance only. Their accuracy is not guaranteed."
Kopiaste and Kali Orexi!
Those Brownies look fantastic! Your cat's sweet! What a pretty face...
Cheers,
Rosa
Cute cat!
Pistachios are always a big hit in my family. You can always find brownies (which are my mom's fav) around my house, either in plain, hot fudge, caramel pecan, and yes for my dad, pistachio filled. While the rest of the world makes them w/ other nuts like peanuts, almonds, walnuts and pecans, my dad and I love pistachios. It must be a Greek thing! So now that you've tried brownies, gonna make them more often? They are so easy to make, right? And sooo yummy! I've always added some Hershey's chocolate syrup to the batter the last minute to make them more gooey. It's great.
Delicious Ivy! They're a little similar to "mud cake"...the brownies I've eaten have been denser in texture...not really sure in the end! They look beautiful!
Pistachios and raspberry sauce! Wow, those sound like deliciously decadent brownies! They're making me hungry...
I'm looking at your blog in Safari - and it looks fine. I love the idea of pistachios in the brownies. Looks delicious.
Wonderful Ivy! I see you are now full swing into the Christmas baking season! 🙂 Did you use pistachios from Aegina or Megara for your brownies?
Rosa, thanks. Do you think she is sweet? She gave me a scratch on the hand as she doesn't like paparazzi!!
Niki, thanks. Lots of people love pistachios. I love them as well.
Peter G, thanks. I shall try and find a recipe for mud cake to see the difference.
Hopie, they are. You should try them.
Joan, first time I've heard of Safari but I am glad that at least some people can read the post.
Sam, I didn't know Megara had pistachios.
I love pistachios too besides hazelnut and almond! I sure need some of them now 😀 I saw so many sweets and chocolates in your blog until I don't know which one to make first! 🙂
Time to stock up my pantry for all those delicous, homemade sweets!
I have a weakness for any brown food with green specks, that combination does it for me.
Your brownies look perfectly delicious, especially with that raspberry sauce, YUM! Your kitty is beautiful!
No one would say these are yur first time making brownies. They look perfect.
We use a lot of pistachios in Indian food, besides cashews and almonds.
In my childhood, many of the things I make today were just things I read about, brownies included.
I've never eaten mud cake either.:D
Its me again.
I forgot to say, your post looks ok now. I use IE so maybe that's where the problem was. 🙂
Yummy! lovely pics!... really tempting choco delights ivy!
Ivy those brownies are out of this world wonderful!!
Delicious. I LOVE brownies and pistachios so I'll have to add pistachios to my next batch. I love the size of the brownies. I always scoff at getting 16 out of an 8" square 🙂 The sauce puts them over the top!