Maida Heatter's Palm Beach Brownies

A community recipe by gastrohoover

Not tested or verified by Nigella.com

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Introduction

These are a close rival to Nigella's Snowflecked Brownies from Feast, as the perfect chocolate dessert. Very moist and gooey and dead-easy to make. See the two variations below. These are fabulous. I serve them cold, unlike Nigella's snowflecked variety which are awesome when warm, as they taste better that way.

Ingredients

Serves: 6-8

9 ounces bittersweet chocolate
9 ounces unsalted butter
2 cups chopped walnuts
5 large eggs (extra large)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 drop almond essence (a tiny drop)
1 pinch of salt
1 tablespoon instant coffee (fine powdered, a heaped tablespoon)
3 cups superfine sugar
1⅔ cups sifted all-purpose flour (measure after sifting)

Method

Maida Heatter's Palm Beach Brownies is a community recipe submitted by gastrohoover and has not been tested by Nigella.com so we are not able to answer questions regarding this recipe.

I roughly follow Nigella's method for the snow flecked brownies in Feast, using the same size tin. However these brownies require 35 minutes in the oven and not 25 as Nigella's recipe allows. Don't cut them until they are fully cool, even cold (say after about an hour or even overnight in the fridge). The colder they are, the better they are to cut. If you have a really sharp knife, a good sense of geometry and spaces and infinite patience, you can slice this slab of goodness into 60 gorgeous sized brownies. First cut out 5 even rectangular bars, then slice these bars into 12. Or a 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 method until you get the perfect size rectangle or square. Variations: Maida Heatter does these with a layer of York Peppermint Patties in the middle (YPPs are like a chunky after-dinner mint with a thick, minty fondant centre that doesn't melt). These come in bags or individually wrapped. Made by Hershey's, you can get these from any good confectionery outlet that imports US goodies. These brownies are truly extraordinary. I have made them this way only once, and thankfully, was able to cut them into 64 bite-sized pieces. Any larger and they would be waaaayyyy too rich. Another MH variation, which is truly amazing and completely different, is to substitute the walnuts for whole roasted and salted (yes, salted) macadamia nuts, the almond essence for coconut essence and to add a couple of cups of chopped glace or crystallized pineapple. These are truly tropical.