It’s still Chocolate Week!
To celebrate, I was keen to create a completely over-the-top, heart-racing brownie that squeezed as much chocolate as possible into each bite. The end result was this once only treat that Pete and the boys loved (it actually gave me the sugar shakes, so I don’t think I’ll be baking it again).
I used five types of chocolate in the recipe – Callebaut 70%, 54%, 44%, Dutched cocoa, and caramelised white chocolate – a total of 620g in the eight inch slab. I was inspired by a recipe from Debbi Field’s Great American Desserts (the original recipe used white chocolate, dark chocolate, Brazil nuts and caramel). Please feel free to improvise as desired …
- 185g (¾ cup) unsalted butter, melted
- 110g (1 cup) Dutched cocoa powder
- 165g (¾ cup) white sugar
- 100g (½ cup, packed) brown sugar
- 2 large (59g) free range eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla (I used homemade)
- 112g (¾ cup) plain (AP) flour
- good pinch of fine sea salt
- 150g (1 cup) skinned, roasted hazelnuts, chopped
- 150g (½ cup) caramelised white chocolate, melted
- 90g (½ cup) Callebaut 70% dark chocolate callets
- 90g (½ cup) Callebaut 811 54% dark chocolate callets
- 90g (½ cup) Callebaut 44% dark baking sticks, broken up
- 90g (½ cup) caramelised white chocolate chips
1. In a bowl, combine the chocolate callets, broken up baking sticks and caramelised white chocolate chips. Add the chopped hazelnuts and stir to combine. Preheat oven to 175C (350F) with fan. Line a 20cm (8″) square pan with parchment paper.
2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the melted butter and cocoa powder until smooth. Add the white and brown sugar and beat with an electric mixer until combined. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat well.
3. In a small bowl, stir together the flour and salt, then mix this into the batter. Add the chocolate callets, chocolate chips and hazelnuts and mix gently until just combined.
4. Scrape the mixture into the pan – it will be stiff and lumpy. Smooth the surface as much as possible, then pour the melted caramelised white chocolate over the top.
5. With the point of a sharp knife, cut the liquid chocolate into the mixture – this is a messy process as the batter will be quite stiff. When you feel that the melted chocolate has been sufficiently mixed in, smooth the top out a little, but try to keep the surface a little marbled.
6. Bake the brownies for 30 minutes, or until the edges are set and the centre is moist but not runny. Allow to cool completely in the pan before slicing.
I didn’t let the slab cool quite enough before slicing into it…
When completely set, the brownies have a firm texture, akin to a dense (and very delicious) fudge. It’s the perfect treat to share with lots of friends, because it really isn’t possible to eat more than a piece or two!
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
I want that one little square in the front of the last picture. Just that one piece and then I will be happy :) Actually I am happy! This is such an extravagansa of brownieness that it really is just enough to look at the screen and smile xxx
They were just plain silly, but I wanted to make something just for Chocolate Week! Plus I had all that caramelised white choc to use! :)
OH MY GOD! You crazy woman, no wonder you got the shakes, I went into shock just looking at it, but I am with Joanna, just a teensy bite please? wow! c
C, it’s lucky we didn’t all eat ourselves into a diabetic coma.. :) I wish I could send you all a piece, there’s still plenty left, as no-one could eat very much of it! LOL!
I can’t believe my eyes – it really is death by chocolate! Your boys will be suspicious if this ever appears again. LOL! ;)
Suelle, that’s true!! I took some over to our friends Will and Bethany who’ve had a new baby (they needed the sugar hit) and both of them had wild dreams that night… :D
I agree- these must be lethal!
But to die in a chocolate bliss might just be a blessing!
Pete and the boys had a close call that should be remembered rather than repeated! :)
You are the chocolate Queen, Celia!
Heidi, it was fun to try and invent a recipe – I’ve been trying to find a way to incorporate the caramelised white chocolate into something for ages. Any Mrs Field’s recipe is pretty chocolate-laden to start with, but we changed this one a lot, but using the white chocolate instead of caramel sauce. :)
Wouldn’t it be easier to just eat some straight chocolate?
Well of course, but what would be the adventure in that? :)
It is! They look incredible – I’m so glad I enlightened you to the chocolate week fact! Perhaps they’re as good as my tart – they look so dense and gooey.
Your chocolate tart looked amazing! Thanks again for the headsup on Chocolate Week! :)
a little square with a cup of tea after a hard day’s work in the garden would be a great pick me up..
Jane, it would be the perfect brownie to keep bleary quilting eyes open late into the night! :)
Oh dear..Sunday morning bleary eyed and reading …5 chocolate brownie(s). Ah, this sounds nice. It must be a special thing to have 5 pieces of brownie on the plate. But no! It is 5 types of chocolate within the brownie! Only you, Celia, I do so applaud you. Looks divine. I bet it tasted even better! Happy chocolate week. A fitting offering, if ever I saw one. ;)
Thanks Chris, it was fun to go OTT for chocolate week! Break out the Mylanta and insulin! :)
There’s still a day to go, maybe you need to get those creative daughters of yours onto the task to make something for Chocolate Week! :)
Wowee, they really do look like a chocolate overload, and that’s from a die-hard chocoholic! Amazing though too! Definitely a fabulous way to celebrate chocolate week, truly getting into the spirit of it!
C, thanks for letting me know about Chocolate Week – it’s been fun to play along! :)
Oh My Goodness, I think you should freeze it in 1cm squares only breaking it out for extreme emergencies! I will stick to your chestnut flour brownies as I don’t think even my medications could combat the sugar rush and shakes from these babies :) Chocolate week should feel suitably honoured with this complete surrender to it’s sweet seduction.
Becca, I think they’ll keep well for ages – they’re very solid and dense. Even my boys can’t eat them fast – I think they’re having just one a day.. :)
Celia, you really are a splendid woman. Anyone who works out a way to get 5 different kinds of chocolate into a brownie is more than OK in my book.
Love your work. ;-)
LOL! You know I can’t do things by halves, especially not during Chocolate Week! Thanks Amanda! :)
How can you do this to me, I already have developed a serious passion for brownies with your previous help….
Sorry love, didn’t mean to do that to you.. :)
Did you see I posted about the honey you gave me in the IMK post below? :)
Well I didnt think it would be possible when I saw the title, but sure enough it is true. 5 chocolate brownies well ill be…………
Sigh…I got carried away.. ;-)
Whoa.. Virtual Sugar Rush!!!
I wonder how one chocolate perceptive taste bud distinguishes “Five” of them? Of course, my palate is sophisticated, and disciplined for the task.. ‘SHOW ME THE CHOCOLATE’!!! Let the stomach sort them all out,..
bless you
paul
Paul, you’re too funny! :) It was a serious sugar rush, I can tell you. I’m too old to keep eating things like this.. ;-)
Wow! I can feel the sugar shakes coming just looking at this fabulous brownie. A fantastic way to finish off chocolate week.
Thanks Claire, it was fun to make and eat – once! ;-)
WOAH Looks great!!!!
Mrs Kimbers, thanks for stopping by! :)
Crikey. This looks deadly sinful. I felt that my choc mud cake was way too sinful, but honestly Celia I think your brownie beats my mud cake hands down. I can imagine you’d need lots of people to help consume it. This would surely have to be a chocoholic’s ultimate fix.
Mariana, it’s very wicked, thankfully I have had lots of neighbours helping with eating this! It’s far too much for the four of us to eat on our own!
this appeals to the chocoholic in me :)
Thanks Tandy! Wish I could send you some! :)
Oh Celia, what a fantastic chocolate treat. I’ve just eaten a sour cherry brownie I made earlier in the week, but now I really really want one of yours. Great way to end Chocolate Week.
Choc, if you lived closer, I would send you chocolate every time I bake it! :)
He he, as you know, if I had any say in it, I would be living right next door to you ;-)
Heart is beating faster just reading the ingredients of that one Celia.
Match that with a strong espresso and whoosh!…I think I would get a lot more things done in my day :-)
Brydie, just the thought of caffeine on top of all that raised my heart rate! :)
I used to be a serious coffee addict (about eight espressos a day), but gave it all up cold turkey about ten years ago. My elderly Italian neighbour used to make coffee for me, God bless her. She’d always say..”darling, I no make strong coffee..” and she’d give me a demitasse with the spoon almost upright in it because it was so thick. When I gave up caffeine completely, I reckon I lost about 20% productivity in my day. Probably because I was sleeping an extra two hours a night! :)
Celia, you sure you don’t have Italian heritage? Eight a day eh… respect indeed. My heart *ouch* just skipped a few beats thinking about it.
…I think I would quite like an Italian nonna to have coffee with next door.
Brydie, it was such a wonderful time – we were in our early 20s, she was in her 70s, and she spoilt us rotten! :)
At the gym right now… This put a giddy up in my step… Yummmmm. 5 different chocolates. Saweeet! Dang girl, this is AMAZING!
You’re reading my blog at the gym? I’m honoured, darling! :)
OMG that is a lot of chocolate! I have slight heart palpitations just from reading that recipe and seeing the photo. I can just imagine the chocolate-sugar hit they would deliver. Better go have a coffee now to calm myself down….
I love that you have coffee to calm yourself down! :)
Although I don’t have a sweet tooth, I can “tolerate” white chocolate and combination of hazelnuts would win me over. Beautiful brownies and 5 different chocolates too!
Chopin, thank you! I’m the opposite – I don’t love white chocolate, but the caramelised version is quite different! :)
:D MY HEAVEN!!!!! I so need a sugar rush right now :D Can i help you make it next time? :D
Hello there, how’s the study going? These would be good brain food, I reckon.. :)
Oh I didn’t think I was a brownie fan, but I could perhaps change my mind now… I so wish you lived around the corner from us Celia. I’d so be inviting you over for morning tea every week… and hoping you’d arrive with just a little treat each time :D
Ali, you know I’d love that, don’t you? :)
They look too too delicious and I feel I could never stop at 2! Made choc slab cake again yesterday. Too good.
Anna, we make the slab cake all the time – I’m so glad you love it too! Thanks!
OMG! I felt like I needed to visit the gym just by looking at this post. Deliciously chocolatey and just what every girl wants!
Erin, I’ve been on the treadmill every day this week.. ;-)
A small piece of this brownie and a tall cafe mocha from Starbucks, ahh a perfect pick me up on a Sunday morning. These look lethal! I can’t handle as much sugar in my desserts as I once could in my youth, but these look irresistible. I rarely make a Debbie Fields recipe, but just look at the pictures and drool, because they are so rich.
Mel, the Debbie Fields book is one of my favourites – her recipes seem to always work for me! Like you though, I can’t eat as many sweets as I did in the past, so they don’t get an airing as often as they used to!
My goodness! A five chocolate brownie? Haha I’m picturing you not baking over your break and then baking with chocolate with a vengeance! :P
It’s funny, I’ve been tempering a lot of chocolate, but I haven’t been baking much – possibly because of school holidays. You’re right though, I’m baaack.. :)
I’ve ordered a ‘Death by Chocolate’ dessert in many a restaurant only to find myself still alive and capable of walking out the door – unsated. I wish just one of them have served a 5xBrownie by Celia!!!
Gill, I’d been looking to use the caramelised white chocolate in something, so this, coupled with Chocolate Week, seemed like a good excuse. Having said that, it really was too rich for me to eat much of it. I’d like to think you would have enjoyed it.. :)
I am drooling…
Hehehe…thanks Norma! :)
Oh. My. God! You had me at five chocolate brownie haha. Delish!!!