Brownies

Ingredients

• 225 g bitter chocolate (min 70% cacao), cut in pieces
• 225 g butter (in U.S.A: use European butter, for example Irish butter)
• 165 g sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla sugar (or bourbon vanilla)
• 3 eggs
• 150 g almonds, grated
• 100 g walnuts, chopped

Slowly melt the chocolate with the butter at super low flame in a pan (best pans are stainless steal with a heavy bottom – make sure it only melts down but does not get really hot.)

Remove the pan from the flame and mix in the sugar and vanilla sugar.

Preheat the oven to 340ºF (170ºC)

Make sure the mixture is not too hot for the eggs, maybe let the chocolate mixture cool down a bit.

Mix in the eggs, almonds and walnuts and pour the mixture into a square form of ca 9 x 9 inch (24 x 24 cm), or in pastry paper forms, and bake for 25 – 30 minutes – the outside nicely baked and the inside still moist. When using pastry paper forms the baking time is maximum 27 minutes.

Let it cool a bit, then cut into 16 pieces (3 horizontal, 3 vertical cuts) and put your freshly baked brownies on a tray.

	Melting the chocolate and butter on my electrical stove that has a scale from 0 to 10, I use 2, and keep stirring till it is melted.
	Filling the mix into small baking paper forms.
	Baked for 27 min at 170ºC
	Baked in a big tray for 30 min at 170ºC and cut into squares while hot.

I have noticed that the content of cacao in many brands' chocolate has dropped over the years. The Swiss Migros' Kochschokolade contains only 46% cacao. Denner's Noir contains 72% and is the better choice.