Coffee Break and Hazelnut Brownies

Allow me to put up this, in case it benefits others. First off, I made the first trial in a bit of a rush, by comparing 2 recipes and gambled - praying that it'll turn out edible.  This is the original recipe, the first thing that come out in the Google search results, and to get an idea you can read the comments, good critics and bad.  Link is included below.So here goes nothing:

  gambar sekadar hiasan

Ingredients 
Original recipe makes 16 brownies
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• Frosting:
• 3 tablespoons butter, softened
• 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup confectioners' sugar


Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour an 8-inch square pan.
2. In a large saucepan, melt 1/2 cup butter. Remove from heat, and stir in sugar, eggs, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat in 1/3 cup cocoa, 1/2 cup flour, salt, and baking powder. Spread batter into prepared pan.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes. Do not overcook.
4. To Make Frosting: Combine 3 tablespoons softened butter, 3 tablespoons cocoa, honey, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, and 1 cup confectioners' sugar. Stir until smooth. Frost brownies while they are still warm.


• PREP25 mins
• COOK35 mins
• READY IN1 hr


In courtesy of Allrecipe.com.
Pasted from <http://allrecipes.com/recipe/best-brownies/>

I followed the above recipe with a few adjustments:

Additional ingredients

• Substitute white sugar to  1/2 cup brown sugar and another 1/4 white sugar...didn't really fill the sugar for 1 full cup, don't want it to be excessively sweet.  The amount I saw when I start pouring the sugar into the mix was worrying enough!  But if you don't have them, it's okay to just use whitesugar all the way, it just happen there's some in the cupboard.
• I didn't have cocoa powder, so melt 3 blocks (around 150g?) of corona chocolate (any cooking chocolate is fine, by the way.)
• 1/2 cup of crushed hazelnut/walnut.  I accidentally blend them to crumbs, but still retained few pieces - pleasant surprise to those lucky ones.
• Frosting: used instant Kent Boringer chocolate sauce - would have attempted the suggested sauce in recipe, but time (and ingredients!) was short that day.

Additional steps

• Melt chocolate in double boiler, add butter when almost all chocolate are melted.
• Add hazelnut after the flour.
• Bake until the top is flaky and fork come out clean.

Anyhow, thanks for asking, and hope yours turn out much better ! 

Still remember the time my friend Farhana made it, then got a taste of Afifah's, and brownies was a thing back then~~ Now, i just can't enough of LaPoire's hazelnut caramel brownies - which are dangerously sweet but oh so heavenly...it's probably the caramel (I'm a HUGE fan!!) and the crunches of hazelnut that made me come back for it, again and again...

You can listen to this while making it, dance to it even! (no, actually, don't do it)

Just for fun, a throwback: