Brown Butter Hazelnut Brownies

By stancec44

Dress the brownies up or down by baking them in either a 9“x13” pan and cutting into simple squares, or bake them in 4” round tart pans. Even as a super casual square, these brownies have a seriously elegant flavor.

Ingredients

• 16 ounces unsalted butter
• 12 ounces dark chocolate (70% minimum) chopped
• 1 vanilla bean, split and scraped, seeds reserved or 2 Tbsp vanilla extract
• 7 ounces toasted hazelnuts, skins removed
• 4.5 ounces cocoa powder (not Hershey’s. I’m serious.)
• 6 eggs
• 21 ounces sugar
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 1 Tbsp instant coffee powder
• optional: additional chocolate for drizzling or dipping

Preparation

Step 1

Preheat the oven to 325°.

Line a 9“x13” metal baking pan with a sheet of aluminum foil; one long strip down the middle and hanging over the ends will get the job done. This will make removing the brownies super easy, and cleaning up a little less onerous. Alternately, lightly greases 15, 4” round tart pans.

What to do: melt the butter, along with the vanilla bean, in a medium saucepan over low heat until liquefied. (If you’re using vanilla extract, don’t add it now. Add it in later, with the salt and espresso.)

Crank up the heat to medium low. The mixture will bubble, possibly spit, and make a lot of noise. Keep an eye on it, and keep simmering. You’ll notice brown bits forming on the bottom, you don’t want these bits to turn black*. Don’t bother with stirring or skimming, just watch and listen and possibly turn down the heat if it looks too toasty. After a while, the butter will really go ninja silent, which means you’re done.

Now remove from/shut off the heat and add in the chocolate. Whisk, scraping along the bottom to mix up the browned bits, until smooth. The mixture will be quite thin. Set off the heat to cool.

Put the hazelnuts and cocoa in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until finely ground. Don’t bother sifting, the nibby bits of hazelnut are really nice in the finished brownie. Set aside.

With a hand mixer or stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, combine the eggs, sugar, reserved vanilla seeds (or vanilla extract if you’re going that route), salt, and espresso powder. Whip on medium speed for about 5 minutes.

Turn down the speed on the stand mixer to low and pour in the butter/chocolate mixture all at once. Immediately add in the dry ingredients and keep mixing until just incorporated.

Pour or spoon into the prepared pan or pans. Bake about 30 minutes for the large pan, and closer to 15 for the 4” rounds. Bake until just slightly firm to the touch. They may not seem totally done when you pull them out, but this particular brownie is so very dense that it will retain its heat and keep cooking for quite some time. Err on the side of gooey.

Cool the brownies thoroughly before cutting or removing from the pans.

In the case of the 9“x13” pan, lift the brownies out of the pan by tugging on the foil. If you’re looking to get extremely neat squares, refrigerate the brownies for an hour before cutting.

In the case of the 4” rounds, wedge a toothpick between the brownie and the pan, wiggle to loosen the brownie, then flip the pan over and rap firmly against the counter. It should pop right out, but if you have trouble, keep toothpicking around the edges until the brownie comes out.

In either case, drizzle or cover in tempered chocolate if you like, or serve them as-is.