Brownies. I’m sure you’ve heard of them. You’ve probably made them. You might even have made a cream-cheese-swirl version, and that’s cool. I don’t get it at all when people talk about ‘the internet not needing another x-recipe’. Like, I love recipes. I love trying different versions of things. What would a spoonful of cocoa do? How about some salted peanuts in that mix? Life is wa-aaa-aaaaayyyy too short to only ever sample one kind of brownie. And, frankly, what is the point of having a blog if you don’t just post whatever the hell you want to? This isn’t a school assignment folks. This is my house.
In my house, today, we’re making mind blowing brownies. Like, seriously great, delicious, groan-out-loud good brownies. They make use of my latest favourite ingredient: hazelnut praline paste. Have you heard of it? It’s pretty old school, but only recently making its way into home kitchens. Picture this: hazelnut praline – you know, hazelnuts trapped in a luminous shard of amber toffee – ground into a smooth, smooth, smooth paste. The best way to describe the taste, is basically like a non-chocolate Nutella, but so much better. I find Nutella to be way too sweet and claggy, but praline paste is balanced, nuanced, and did I mention how smooth it is?
These brownies make the most of hazelnut praline paste. The truffley quality of the paste brings out the truffley quality of the brownies, and the cheesecake provides a necessary tang in between the two. In fact it’s the tangy, bland, richness of that cheesecake swirl that really makes these brownies work . Without that, these would be too rich, too sweet, too much…unless that’s what you’re in the mood for, in which case go for it. Or go for the cheesecake. Really, you can’t go wrong here, people.
xx Sarah.
- 160g (1 stick + 3 tbsp) butter
- 160g dark chocolate, chopped (70% cocoa solids)
- 270g (1 + ⅓ cup) caster sugar
- 4 eggs
- 100g (2/3 cup) plain flour
- pinch of salt
- 250g (8oz) cream cheese, at room temperature
- 50g (1/4 cup) caster sugar
- 1 egg
- ⅓ cup hazelnut praline paste
- Preheat the oven to 180C/350F and grease and line a 30x20cm (or similar size) brownie pan.
- Place the butter into a large, heavy based saucepan over a medium heat, and cook, stirring, until the butter is melted. Remove from the heat, and immediately add the chocolate, stirring gently until it melts.
- Add the sugar, and stir until combined, then crack in all of the eggs and beat with a wooden spoon until the mixture is smooth and shiny. Finally, stir through the flour and salt.
- To make the cream cheese mixture, beat the cream cheese and sugar together until completely smooth and thick. The cream cheese HAS to be at room temp people, otherwise it's lump city. Beat in the egg.
- Scrape the chocolate batter into the pan, and then dollop over the cream cheese mixture in 6 or 8 large spoonfuls. Pour the hazelnut praline paste in a swirling pattern over the top.
- Tap the tin on the bench, to flatten out the mixture, and then use a skewer or chopstick to swirl the cream cheese and praline paste into the brownie batter. Less is more here, but it's up to you.
- Bake the brownie in the middle shelf of the oven for 20-25 minutes, or until risen at the edges, and with a slight wobble in the centre. Leave to cool completely in the tin, and for neat slices, chill overnight before cutting.
welcome to my house~ flo rida aside, these (and really, anything with hazelnut praline paste) sound amazing! i already spend too much money on ingredients/food, but it sounds so worth it to track down some of the paste and play around with it.
Haha – yessss, get some!
Hazelnut praline paste isn’t really a thing in the UK but I’m going to desperately try and hunt it out because these sound insane!!
Katie xoxo
I think your best bet would probably be a chocolate store, or specialty baking store. Or just use Nutella!
Such tempting brownies! They look irresistible!
Thanks Medeja!
Hold the phone, I need these in my life now. As my fellow Brit above mentioned, I’ve never seen hazelnut praline paste in any shops, but I’m sure Nutella could be used as a substitute?
Hey Kelly – yeah gurl, Nutella would be totally fine! But if you wanted to track down Hazelnut Paste, I’d hit up any specialty baking stores or even Chocolatiers in your area.
Yes!!!! These are just what my day needs to end with! I am so down!
Awww, lovely, I hope everything’s OK? I read something the other day that helped me:’always remember it’s just a bad day, not a bad life’.
I think these might be the most delicious looking brownies I have ever seen! I’ve only ever come across hazelnut praline paste for sale online, hopefully it will become more popular and supermarkets will start selling it. I have made my own before, and very good it was too, but my poor food processor almost started smoking with the effort!
YASS. I wish every supermarket would just stock all of the shit that I want! My food processor can’t even come close to making a nut butter, let alone a praline paste.
YES. these look amazing!
They so goooood.
I am in love with this flavour!! Such a yummy brownie. And yeah…more brownie recipes are definitely needed!! Keep ’em coming!
Haha, thanks Katrina. And honestly, I don’t think I could stop if I wanted to.
These look incredible!!! I am going to have to hunt down some praline paste and try this. :)
Definitely! Worth looking in any specialty baking stores or chocolate shops, or you can just get it on Amazon.
Give me all the brownies, yo (<- that way my best attempt at Flo'Rida, sorry…). Anyway, I strongly encourage experimentation in all forms, especially in brownie forms, and this brownie form better find it's way into my mouth STAT!
You know what’s funny? I wasn’t even thinking of that song. I was channeling Liz Lemon, lol.
OMFG!!! please, stop the bus!! These have me quivering with … desire?? need?? not sure what it is but I’ve got to cook these soon – on the hunt for hazelnut praline paste!
Girl, you are going to LOVE these! xx
So where did you get the praline paste? Please say somewhere in Aus rather than a buying trip OS :)
Hey Beck, I bought it online! I actually bought a massive tub of the stuff because I love it so much. But they often have it in like chocolatier’s and specialty baking joints too. xx