Delia Smith's Brownies: Deliciously squidgy

Today, we at a Book of Cookrye are trying British brownies!

Brownies 2 eggs 2 oz unsweetened chocolate* (50g) 4 oz butter (110g, ½ cup) 8 oz sugar (225g, 1 cup) 2 oz flour (50g, ½ cup) 1 tsp baking powder ¼ tsp salt 4 oz chopped nuts, if desired (110g): pecans, almonds, hazelnuts, or brazilnuts ---or walnuts if you really have to Heat oven to 350° (gas mark 4, or 180°C). Cut a piece of parchment paper to fit a 7 x 11 pan. Then grease the pan, and then press the paper into place. Lightly beat the eggs in a small bowl, set aside. Melt the butter and broken up chocolate together a double boiler. Or, melt them in a large bowl in the microwave, stopping and stirring every 20 seconds. Then stir in all the remaining ingredients. Spread in the pan. Bake for 30 minutes (18 hectoseconds), or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool for about ten minutes before cutting. Then remove to a wire rack to finish cooling (or just serve them out of the pan). *If substituting cocoa powder, use six tablespoons of it. Technically you are supposed to add two tablespoons of butter to the recipe, but it really isn't necessary. To get the most flavor out of the cocoa powder: melt the butter, getting it really hot instead of just warm enough to go runny. Then whisk in the cocoa powder and let stand until lukewarm. Note: To make these in a 9"x13" pan, multiply the recipe by one-and-a-half. Note 2: As with all recipes, use the same measurement system for all of the ingredients. Either go all-metric or all-customary. Don't measure some things in ounces and other things in grams. Source: Delia Smith's Book of Cakes, 1978 via the Internet Archive

I wanted to try this for three reasons. First, Delia Smith's recipes never fail unless you irreparably alter them. Second, I always love a good excuse for brownies. And third, I love seeing other countries' takes on American food. We in the US often see heavily altered versions of the food of other countries (I don't think anyone from Italy would recognize Little Caesar's), so I'm always interested to see what it's like on the receiving end.

Delia Smith's Book of Cakes, 1978

In her book, Delia describes brownies as "moist, chewy chocolate nut squares," which I found interesting. Even though a lot of people put nuts in brownies (or poison them with walnuts), I didn't think the nuts got equal billing.

Another sign this isn't an American recipe: I don't know anyone who makes brownies in a 7"x11" pan. Fortunately for those who want to use a standard-issue 9"x13", you can multiply the recipe by one-and-a-half and it will fit perfectly. 

 

I made these at a friend's house. He wanted to bake something together. I've noticed that some friends love to make an elaborate oven-based project, but others simply want something to do with our hands while chatting. With that in mind, I picked a recipe where the instructions are simply "stir it together." When I sent over the shopping list, I didn't mention that we were testing a totally new (to me) recipe from over the Atlantic.

Delia says that Brazilnuts are the best nuts for brownies. Since I've never seen anyone on this side of the Atlantic put Brazilnuts in brownies, I'm going to say this is one of those delightful times when you see recipes change when crossing national lines.

Having never bought them before, I didn't even know what a Brazilnut looks like. When I saw them on the counter, I quietly groaned to myself and thought "Oh great, they're the ones I pick out of mixed nuts." But I couldn't say anything out loud because I'm the one who sent the shopping list.

Moving down the ingredient list, we're doing something a bit unusual here at A Book of Cookrye: using baking chocolate instead of cocoa powder! I've been using cocoa powder ever since the price of baking chocolate shot up. I simultaneously did and didn't hope I'd notice the $4 difference. It'd be nice to get the extra money's worth out of the expense, but I also didn't want to find out that cocoa powder will never be as good.

After melting the butter and chocolate, we only needed to beat the eggs in a small bowl and then pile everything together. When I asked where was the sugar, he blinked at me and said "Uh, we have Sugar in the Raw for coffee. Will that work?" And that is how these became the most expensive brownies I've ever made.

After getting all our ingredients into place, we only have to stir them together. This low-effort "just put it all in the bowl" method really makes the recipe seem authentic. It also reminded me of Fanny Cradock throwing everything "absolutely pell-mell" into a bowl of fruitcake.

Behold the Brazilnuts!

They baked up beautifully, with a shiny layer on top and a lot of fudgy bliss underneath.

They had that perfect brownie texture-- just a bit crispy on top, and ever-so-soft ("squidgy" in Britspeak) in the middle. Even the Brazilnuts were good after they got toasted in the oven. The brownies were a bit gritty from the raw sugar, but that's our fault and not the recipe. We're keeping this one on file.