Seduction Brownies

Wikipedia says about seduction that "the word seduction stems from Latin and means literally 'to lead astray'."

I don't know what it is about brownies. I just can't resist them. Cakey, fudgey, with nuts, without, frosted, glazed, or however they're tarted up, I am unable to walk away and forget about them. When I visit a food blog and a luscious brownie is posted, I don't groan and say, "Oh, no, not another brownie!" I drool over it, copy the recipe to my burgeoning brownie file, and then when the urge gets too strong, I bake them. And then, do I really need to tell you that I eat them?


I have an embarrassing number of brownies on the blog already, but don't get your hopes up. I'm not done. Not by a long shot. So if you're one of the "oh, no, not another brownie" crowd, just click along to another site. But if you're like me, a slave to wanton chocolate desire, bookmark this trollop. A luscious, dense, moist brownie, that teases from beneath a silky smooth layer of ganache. You know you want it.

Seduction Brownies
- adapted from The Great Book of Chocolate by David Lebovitz

1/2 cup (1 stick or 115 gm) unsalted butter
4 oz (115 gm) unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1 cup (200 gm) sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup (105 gm) all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (65 gm) chopped and toasted walnuts or pecans

Ganache;
1/4 cup (60 ml) heavy cream
2 oz (60 gm) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped

1- Preheat oven to 325 deg F ( 160 C) with a rack in the center position. Butter an 8-inch (20-cm) square baking dish.

2- In a medium saucepan over low heat, melt the butter and unsweetened chocolate, stirring often. Remove from heat and stir in the sugar, then the eggs, and vanilla.

3- Mix in the flour and nuts, stirring just till incorporated. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top.

4- Bake for 25 minutes. Place the pan on a wire rack to cool completely.

5- In a small saucepan over low heat, warm the heavy cream and chocolate, stirring until smooth. Remove from the heat and let it cool briefly, until spreadable. Either spread the ganache over the brownies while they're in the pan, or after you've removed them from the pan and cut them into 16 squares.