Honey-roasted Nut Butter Brownies

Looking through the Waitrose Kitchen magazine whilst Sous Chef J was at a Minecraft club the other day, I spotted that the 'Star Bake' recipe for Honey-roasted  Nut Butter Brownies.  It caught my eye not only because it looked appetising but also because I thought it may 'convert' to gluten free relatively easily.  So, we gave it a go - although we only made half the quantity the original recipe was for...

So, the ingredients we used were -

125g mixed nuts
1 tsp honey
½ tsp salt
70g unsalted butter
125g dark chocolate chips
100g caster sugar
¼ tsp salt
½ tsp vanilla extract
1 large egg, lightly beaten
100g Self Raising flour (we used Doves's Farm gluten free)

The nuts were roughly chopped then put on a baking sheet and into a 200ºC oven for four minutes to brown (use a timer... they'll burn if left too long)  Then the honey and seasalt were mixed through before returning the sheet to the oven (temp lowered to 180ºC) for a further two minutes.  Once removed, the nuts were left to cool.

Putting 100g of the chocolate and the butter in a pan, they were heated until fully combined.  Then the sugar, salt and vanilla essence were whisked in before adding the eggs and mixing through.  Finally, the flour was added and mixed until smooth.  At this point 37.5g of the nut mix was stirred through and the mix was poured into a greased and lined baking tray (we made a tray out of parchment, about 7" square or 17cm x 17cm).

The brownies were cooked for about 20 minutes and checked... they were removed from the oven when still slightly soft in the middle as we like a softer brownie texture.  Once taken out of the oven, they were cooled in the tin for 5 minutes before being removed and allowed to cool fully on a cooling rack.

Whilst the brownies were cooling, the remainder of the honey-roasted nuts were placed in our small food processor bowl and blended (takes quite a while) until they became a butter.  

Once the brownie was cool, the nut butter was spread on top and smoothed out.





 









To make the chocolate drizzle topping, the remaining chocolate drops were placed in a small freezer bag which was covered in hot water and left to melt for a few minutes.

Having melted the chocolate in the bag, a small snip across the corner of the bag was made and the chocolate was drizzled across the brownies.

Finally the brownies were cut into small squares ready for eating.

Hotel Chocolat Advent Calendar

Once again, we are lucky to be one of Hotel Chocolat's Christmas bloggers.  Their website has a useful 'genre' dropdown menu which contains details of chocolate types and dietary needs that can be selected as necessary.  Here you can find out information relating to the products.

 Five weeks today it will be Christmas Eve...and this year we have been sent a Milk Chocolate Advent Calendar which retails for £12.  It has book-type folded design and opening the calendar reveals numbered windows behind which there are mini-chocolates to be opened each day during Advent.


Sous Chef J was adamant we were NOT to start the advent calendar yet as "it's not December" but did work out that he could access the chocolates behind the windows "for blog purposes" and here's a pic he took of what he found.

As you can see, there are lovely little chocolate figures waiting behind the foil - one for each day... Sous Chef J thinks they look 'bitesized' so I don't think I'll get a look in once December is with us!

Whilst we're blogging about Hotel Chocolat... in the summer we found out they have a factory shop in Huntingdon near where B works.  Naturally, we had to visit and here's Sous Chef J striding purposefully towards the store entrance.  Inside, we discovered a vast selection of short dated items and loads of special offers.  It's well worth a visit if you live in the area... and is open daily, in case you were wondering.

Disclaimer - Hotel Chocolat sent us the Advent Calendar for free.  We have not been paid for this blogpost and all the pictures and opinions are our own.  Thank you to @HotelChocolat and Beth.