Bittersweet Teff Brownies
Alice Medrich is an award-winning author, pastry chef and teacher. She is one of America’s foremost experts on chocolate and chocolate desserts.
Excerpted from Flavor Flours by Alice Medrich (Artisan Books). Copyright © 2014. Photographs by Leigh Beisch
These moist and deeply chocolate brownies have a light, rather elegant melt-in-your-mouth texture. Teff flour has a nuance of cocoa flavor to start with, so it is a natural choice for brownies. If you need something dressier than brownies, bake the batter in a 9-inch round pan and serve wedges with whipped cream — and perhaps a scattering of seasonal berries — and call it dessert. Either way, the recipe comes together quickly and the results remain deliciously moist for a few days.
- Servings Makes sixteen 2-inch brownies
Ingredients
- 140 grams (10 tablespoons/1¼ sticks) unsalted butter, cut into chunks
- 170 grams (6 ounces) 70% chocolate, coarsely chopped
- 185 grams (1 scant cup) sugar
- 100 grams (¾ cup) teff flour
- 1.2 ml (¼ teaspoon) salt
- 5 ml (1 teaspoon) pure vanilla extract (optional)
- 3 large eggs, cold
- 100 grams (1 cup) walnut or pecan pieces (optional)
Equipment:
- Handheld electric mixer
- 20.3 cm (8-inch) square pan, bottom and all four sides lined with foil
Preparation
1. Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat the oven to 177° C (350° F).
2. Melt the butter with the chocolate in a medium heatproof bowl set directly in a wide skillet of barely simmering water. Stir frequently until the mixture is melted and smooth.
3. Remove the bowl from the water and cool the mixture to lukewarm. Stir in the sugar, teff flour, salt, and vanilla, if using. Add all of the eggs and beat on high speed with the handheld mixer for about 2 minutes. The batter will get thicker and a little lighter in color, like chocolate frosting. Stir in the nuts, if using.
4. Scrape the batter into the pan and spread it evenly. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out fairly dry and clean (don’t worry; the brownies will be moist even if the toothpick is not).
5. Cool on a rack. Lift the foil ends to transfer the brownies to a cutting board. Cut into 16 squares. The brownies may be kept in an airtight container for 2 to 3 days.
Alice Medrich
Alice Medrich’s honors include two James Beard Foundation Awards for Cookbook of the Year and IACP’s 2011 Best Baking Book award for Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt-in-Your-Mouth Cookies. Her 2104 book, Flavor Flours won the 2015 James Beard Award for Best Baking and Dessert Book. She received her formal training at the prestigious École Lenôtre in France and is widely credited with introducing the chocolate truffle to the United States. Alice’s most recent books are Seriously Bitter Sweet and Flavor Flours. Connect with her on Facebook and Twitter.
Photo credit: Deborah Jones
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