Chocolate Walnut Brownies (Egg-free)
Who doesn’t like chocolatey, super soft, cakey brownies – that too egg-free? With the added crunch of toasted walnuts and chocolate chips, this simple Chocolate Walnut Brownie is easy to make, so light and filled with the goodness of chocolate chips.
Brownies are either fudgy and chewy or cakey and soft depending on the ratio of flour, sugar and butter/oil used. This chocolate walnut brownie comes in the cakey category, super soft, moist and airy. Here’s the recipe for a delicious egg-free brownie!
Ingredients
All purpose flour – 1 cup
Powdered Brown Sugar/Demerara sugar – 3/4 cup
Unsalted butter – 1 tsp
Any neutral oil – 1/4 cup
Cocoa powder – 1/2 cup
Buttermilk – 1 cup
Bicarbonate of soda – 1 tsp
Salt – a pinch
Vanilla essence – 1 tsp
Chocolate chips – 1/4 cup (or to taste)
Toasted walnuts (chopped into pieces) – 1/4 cup (or to taste) (see note 1)
Ingredients for the coffee-chocolate sauce:
Espresso powder – 1 tsp
Brown sugar – 2 tbsp
Drinking chocolate/Hot chocolate powder – 4 tbsp
Full cream milk – 100 ml
Yield
16 pieces
Prep time
30 mins
Cook time
40 mins
Method
1) Sieve flour, cocoa powder, salt and bicarbonate of soda twice. Reserve 1 tbsp of this dry ingredient mixture separately.
2) In a large bowl beat the powdered sugar, vanilla essence, oil and buttermilk until blended well.
3) Slowly add the sieved, dry ingredients in small batches and lightly mix until just combined.
4) Preheat the oven to 180°C for 10 mins. Simultaneously take all the ingredients given for the coffee-chocolate sauce in a pan and heat it until the sugar, espresso powder and chocolate powder blends well and the milk just starts to boil forming bubbles on the sides of the pan.
5) Now add this hot coffee-chocolate sauce to the brownie mixture carefully and mix using cut and fold method until combined thoroughly.
6) Sprinkle the reserved 1 tbsp dry mixture to the toasted walnuts and chocolate chips and mix. Add this to the prepared chocolate walnut brownie batter and mix gently.
7) Transfer this to a greased/lined 20 cm x 20 cm baking tray and bake at 180°C for 30 mins and then reduce to 170°C for the next 8 to 10 mins.
8) Pull out the tray from the oven and allow it to cool for 10 mins. Then slowly transfer the chocolate walnut brownie to a wire rack and allow it to cool completely. Once cooled, cut into desired shapes with a sharp knife. Store at room temperature for up to 3 days and refrigerate after that for up to a week.
9) Warm up the chocolate walnut brownie before serving.
Notes
- In a wide pan/kadai dry roast the broken walnuts on minimum heat for 5 to 6 mins or until the nuts are warm and crisp to touch. Switch off the heat and leave it on the hot pan for a further 10 mins or until cooled completely. This process makes the walnuts crunchy and crisp.
- I used ground brown sugar in this recipe. As mentioned in the ingredients list, you can use ground demarara sugar too. Other alternatives are, ground white sugar or soft brown sugar which is almost like powdered brown sugar.
- Use any neutral smelling oil for this recipe, like refined sunflower oil, olive oil or rice bran oil (to name a few).
- The buttermilk you use should be fresh and not sour. If you don’t have fresh buttermilk, you can beat plain yoghurt with some water to dilute and use that instead.
- The addition of hot coffee-chocolate sauce helps in two ways: 1. To activate the bicarbonate of soda and make the brownie soft and airy. 2. Add a nice coffee-chocolate punch to the brownie.
- I like to keep the coffee aroma to a minimum, so I’ve added just 1 tsp of espresso powder. If you are a coffee lover, then you can increase the espresso powder and decrease hot chocolate powder according to your preference. Also, you can completely avoid coffee powder if you wish and make the sauce only with hot chocolate powder.
- Do not mix the brownie batter vigorously, use only cut and fold method to mix the ingredients.
Beginners’ tips
- While mixing the dry and wet ingredients, always use cut and fold method and mix gently. The air that is incorporated while sieving the dry ingredients and the air incorporated in the wet ingredients while blending them together, helps to make the brownie nice, soft and airy. Also, mix the batter in one single direction. Mixing back and forth will make your brownie dense and hard.
- It’s always a great idea to use flour to coat your chocolate chips and nuts before adding it to the batter because it prevents them from sinking to the bottom of the baking tray.
- Allow the chocolate walnut brownie to cool down completely before slicing it up with a sharp knife. The chocolate chips and walnuts we have added might come in the way while slicing the brownie and make it crumble unevenly. So letting the brownie cool completely and using a sharp knife helps to get even slices.
One Comment
MotherOfNOMS
Hi Keya,
Happy you liked this recipe 🙂
This is my favourite recipe too for chocolate brownies.
Thankyou for sharing your feedback, much appreciated.