Hazelnut Crunch Brownies
Ingredients
For the Chocolate Hazelnut Crunch:
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1 cup chocolate-hazelnut spread, such as Nutella
- 1 cup crispy rice cereal
- Extra virgin olive oil, for greasing
For the Brownies:
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ½ tsp. baking powder
- ½ tsp. kosher salt
- ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 tsp. espresso powder
- 1-½ sticks salted butter, softened
- 1-½ cups granulated sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 2 tsp. hazelnut liqueur, such as Frangelico
- Extra virgin olive oil, for greasing
Instructions
To prepare the chocolate hazelnut crunch:
- In a medium bowl, melt the chocolate chips, either over a bain-marie (see notes) or in the microwave.
- Mix in the hazelnut spread and the cereal; thoroughly combine.
- Line a 9-inch by 9-inch baking pan with parchment paper and grease with a bit of extra virgin olive oil.
- Pour the chocolate mixture into the pan, spread out evenly and place in the freezer.
How to prepare the brownies:
- Pre-heat the oven to 350F.
- Place dry ingredients in a large bowl; set aside.
- In a second bowl, cream the butter with the sugar until very well-combined; add the eggs, one at a time; add the liqueur; stir until combined.
- Mix the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients; mix until just combined.
- Remove the pan from the freezer after one hour; the chocolate spread should be hardened after the hour is up.
- Holding the parchment, remove it from the pan and place in the refrigerator.
- Re-parchment the pan and grease with extra virgin olive oil.
- Scrape ½ of the batter into the prepared pan.
- Take the crunch layer out of the refrigerator and place on top of the batter.
- Pour the rest of the batter on top of the hardened crunch layer and smooth the top.
- Place in the pre-heated oven and bake for 30 minutes, or until the edges are firm and the top is shiny and slightly cracked.
- Remove from the oven and place pan on a cooling rack.
- Allow to cool completely before slicing.
Notes
A bain-marie is a cooking utensil containing heated water in which food, in a smaller banking utensil, is cooked.