Walnut Chocolate Brownies

Am a huge fan of Anna Olson, hoarding the TV on AFC to catch her show during the first season of Fresh, now the second season is showing, I'm camping by the TV every Tuesday 9pm to catch her. So naturally I was in ecstasy when she announced that she's coming to Singapore for live demonstrations from 20th to 24th Nov. 10th Nov was the first day of registration open to public and by the time I have time to login that night, all the slots were taken up!!! Disappointed.

Byebye Anna :`( I'm so saaaaaad that I'm going to eat a tub of ice cream :( Miraculously, there were slots available a few days later when I check out the website. And I registered for it!! :P

Starstruck. She's SUPER DUPER AWESOME. My only regret is I didn't go earlier so that I can take the front row seats. Think it'll feel weird seeing her on TV again this coming Tuesday now that I've met her in person. She demonstrated the 3 desserts and we were given a serving of them. They all taste great. Think I'm going to try doing them someday.

omgomg when I grow up, I want to be just like her! :P

Invited a kid to help her with the tarts. To showcase how easy her recipes are, imo.

Raisin Butter Tart - a Canadian favorite

Maple Walnut Ice Cream

Apple, Date & Cheddar Muffin

Autographs on my books. I'm really just a school girl at heart. hehe

In relevance to my meet up, I'm making Anna Olson's brownies! She said there was a period of time where she was into this brownie craze and baking them daily until her husband was like, Your brownies are great, STOP! haha. Kinda remind how I'm like when I'm not happy with my bakes, I just keep repeating the same thing, trying out all sorts of recipes till I get it.

I'm kinda hoping these brownies will turn out to be the tall, non fudgy, cakey version which we commonly have over here, due to the recipe's higher flour and eggs ratio. Reduced the sugar by half to further ensure that it will not turn out as fudgy. And indeed, the brownies turn out to be like what I expected them to be. Can use a little more sugar if it's meant to be eaten on its own. I can imagine it being warmed up and served with a scoop of rich dense vanilla bean ice cream. Guess this will be my to-go recipe if I want a version of our local brownie.
Walnut Chocolate Brownies (adapted from Anna Olson's Sugar)

Ingredients:
225g unsalted butter (I use 200g)
92g cocoa powder (I use Valrhona)
350g sugar (I use 180g, will do 250g for the future bakes)
4 eggs, room temperature
2 tsp vanilla extract
175g all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
70g walnuts, toasted

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 175 °C and grease a 8" x 11" baking pan (I use 9" square baking pan)
2. Melt butter over stove and pour into a larger bowl.
3. Sift cocoa into butter and stir in. Stir in sugar
4. Add eggs into mixture, blending well after each addition
5. Stir in vanilla
6. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt (do not sift) and add to cocoa mixture and blend
7. Stir in walnuts
8. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 35 mins, until firm when touched