Halvah Brownies
Every night after dinner I ask John what he wants for dessert. And every night, he asks if we have any brownies.
By brownies he means: do we have any home-baked brownies? Specifically, David Lebovitz’s recipe for Dave And Kate’s Remarkable Brownies?
Fortunately, the recipe requires little by way of skill or equipment. A sharp knife, a cutting board, a measuring cup, a saucepan, an 8×8 baking pan, and you’re in business.
After baking Dave And Kate’s Remarkable Brownies ten thousand times or so, I got ever-so-slighty bored and began experimenting. I cut down on the sugar while adding various jams, chocolates, extracts, liqueurs, and dried fruits. These experiments met with great success.
To this end, I entertained grand notions of baking the most successful variants, taking lots of mouthwatering pictures, and sharing them here. And yes, I have done this before. But since, I’ve baked lots more brownies. Lots and lots.
Well, I didn’t have to worry about repeating myself. The road to hell is paved with unbaked brownies.
So, here we are, on a rainy February day, with a single batch of brownies. Halvah and tahini, no less. Tahini. The ingredient that broke the internet. What’s next? Acai smoothies? Avo toast dotted with pomegranate?
Never mind. John loved them.
Halvah Brownies With Tahini
Adapted from David Lebovitz’s
The Great Book Of Chocolate
Yield: One 8inx8in/20cmx20cm pan of brownies
Preparation time: about 15 minutes to assemble, 30 minutes to bake
Please read notes before baking.
4 ounces/115 g sweet butter
4 ounces/115 g unsweetened chocolate
3/4-1 cup/175g-200g sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon almond extract (vanilla okay)
6 tablespoons/50g flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
One bar/1.75 ounces/49 g marble or plain halvah, crumbled
1/2 cup semisweet or bittersweet chocolate chips (optional)
Two tablespoons tahini
butter and flour, for the pan
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 325 F/160 C
Have all your ingredients ready to go, as this recipe comes together very quickly. If you want to conserve washing up, measure the almond extract and the eggs into the same bowl. Measure the salt and flour into the same bowl. The chocolate chips and halvah can go into same dish, too.
Spoon tahini in a small bowl and have a fork to hand.
Butter and lightly flour an 8×8/20cmx20cm square baking pan. Metal is better than glass here.
In a small saucepan, place the butter over the lowest possible heat. Finely chop the unsweetened chocolate.
If the butter isn’t completely melted, turn up the heat a little. Once butter has melted, tip unsweetened chocolate into the pan. Using a wooden or heatproof spoon, stir chocolate and butter continuously until melted.
Remove pan from heat. Add the sugar, stirring to blend.
Add the eggs one at a time, stirring all the while to avoid scrambling. Add almond or vanilla extract. Add flour and salt. Stir to blend.
Stir in halvah and chocolate chips.
Tip brownie mixture into the baking pan, spreading evenly.
Give tahini a stir. Drizzle atop brownie batter, marbling lightly with fork.
Place brownies in oven and bake for 30 minutes. They’re done when a tester comes out clean.
Cool on rack.
Notes:
Chocolate: I use Guittard Unsweetened Baking Bars, which are sold in boxes of three 2 ounce/56g bars. Serious bakers buy their chocolate in large blocks, a more economical idea provided you have storage space and pain-free wrists.
Label leftover pieces of chocolate and stash them a ziplock for future baking projects.
(Nobody is paying me, sending me free samples, or offering me trips to San Francisco to tour chocolate factories. I’m just telling you what I use.)
About sugar: Lebovitz’s recipe calls for 1 cup, or 200 grams. As halvah and chocolate chips contain sugar, I prefer to decrease the sugar to 3/4 of a cup. Use the full cup if you wish. Don’t go below 3/4 cup.
Halvah: I use Joyva brand, sold in 1.75 ounce/49 gram bars. Feel free to use whatever brand you like best, and going up to 2 ounces/50 grams is fine.
Recipe Variations:
I have used cocoa instead of flour when buttering and flouring the pan.
Hazelnut extract is delicious in this recipe. I use a teaspoon.
After the flour is stirred in:
Substitute chocolate chips for white chocolate, milk chocolate, or peanut butter chips.
Break up leftover bits and pieces of milk, bittersweet, or white chocolate from other baking projects and add them instead of, or in addition to, the chocolate chips. Just don’t overdo it.
If you enjoy nuts, by all means add a 1/2 cup/115g (Lebovitz’s recipe does). Walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts, whatever you like. And warn everyone.
Dried fruits like raisins or cherries would also work.
Brownies keep well in a tin, wrapped in foil, or in a ziplock plastic bag at room temperature for about five days. Refrigerate them up to seven; freeze them up to three months. Brownies taste wonderful eaten from the freezer. Not that I would know a thing about that.
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