Scandinavian Brownies

Ingredients

1+1/3 cup (150 g) all-purpose flour

1+½ cup (330 g) sugar

4 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

¾ cup (170 g) butter

3 fl oz (0.9 dl) boiling water

3 eggs

4 oz (120 g) chocolate chips (40-50% cocoa)

5 oz (150 g) chopped walnuts or pecan nuts

Frosting

1/3 cup (75 g) butter

8 oz (220 g) sweet or semisweet dark chocolate

2 tablespoon light corn syrup

2 tablespoon hot espresso or very strong coffee

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350 deg F (Gas mark 4 or 180 deg C).
2. Line a 13 x 9 in (33 x 23 cm) cake tin with grease proof or other non-stick paper and grease the tin.
3. Melt the butter in a saucepan.
4. In a bowl combine flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder and vanilla extract.
5. Add eggs, melted butter and hot water and mix until smooth.
6. Add chocolate chips and nuts.
7. Bake at 350 degrees F until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, approximately 20-30 minutes.
8. Cool the cake. Glace with the chocolate frosting.
9. For the frosting, mix butter, chopped chocolate, syrup and coffee and heat in a double boiler until melted. Stir until smooth and spread over the cake.  

Variations

1. For these brownies you may instead use frosting with cocoa powder .
2. You may add 1 tablespoon of espresso mix to brownie batter and use only semi-sweet ghiradelli chocolate chips and baking chocolate for the best result.