I can’t believe Christmas is just around the corner. Scary, right? I swear it was New Year’s Day for 2012 just a few seconds ago… It is absolutely amazing how time seems to be moving right now. I’ve had a busy week – I’ve turned 25 (today, actually!) and finally upgraded to a full drivers licence (goodbye, P plates!)
This year I was hoping to get ridiculously organised with Christmas super early – taking a bit of the stress off during the mad December last-minute shopping (which usually occurs on Christmas Eve. Haha… but seriously, not joking). I’ve (as usual) been trying to become more organised to help save time and money wherever possible by planning ahead. One of my ideas this year is to make some homemade Christmas hampers for family and friends packed with plenty of homemade goodies. One of these recipes I plan to include are these Christmas brownies!
How lucky was I, then, to be sent a package of Lucky Nuts from Nuffnang to review? It also gave me a chance to completely stuff a brownie recipe full of nutty goodness – as if I needed a reason. While I haven’t used Lucky Nuts in the past for baking, I certainly have used them for everyday uses: sprinkling them in cereals, adding them to pestos and dips and, of course, snacking on at work! Aside from being a good quality product, I like that they’re so conveniently accessible from Coles and Woolies, which is a big plus in my books. All in all, they definitely turned out well in this recipe!
These brownies are based off Nigella Lawson’s Flourless Brownies, but packed with extra goodies – more nuts, cherries and chocolate chips, and topped with a layer of fondant. I had never tried baking flourless brownies before but was pleasantly surprised with the result – a dense, incredibly moist and chocolatey brownie, stuffed with extra nutty goodness. It reminded me of a chocolatey version of a Christmas cake – you could add some liquor, extra nuts and dried fruit to emulate this if you wish but I think they’re pretty good the way they are!
Since this recipe uses almond meal instead of flour, these brownies are also perfect for gifting to your gluten intolerent friends and family! This recipe is also great for cleaning up as it is all made in the one pan.
Flourless Christmas Brownies
Ingredients To make about 20 brownies
- 1 cup of butter
- 1 cup baking dark chocolate
- 1 cup caster sugar
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence (I store my vanilla beans in my caster sugar, so skipped this step)
- 3 eggs, whisked (I used organic)
- 200g Lucky almond meal
- 150g Lucky walnuts
- 1 cup frozen cherries
- 250 g (or 1 cup) dark chocolate chips You can also use white or milk choc chips to mix things up a bit!
- 250 grams of white fondant
Method
- Preheat oven to 150 degrees C and butter / line a brownie tin with baking paper to prevent sticking.
- Melt butter over a low heat in a saucepan with high sides.
- Add baking dark chocolate and stir until butter and chocolate melt together.
- Take off the heat and allow to cool for about 10 minutes. Add sugar and vanilla essence (if using).
- Temper eggs by adding a little of the warm chocolate mixture to your beaten eggs and mix together. Add eggs to saucepan and stir until mixed in.
- Add almond meal and stir until fully combined.
- Add walnuts, cherries and chocolate chips. If you wish to add any other dried fruit/nuts, etc. do so now.
- Pour brownie mix from pan into lined tin and bake at 150 degrees, or until a thin blade comes out of the brownie with moist crumbs sticking to it.
- Roll fondant out until at 2cm thickness. Moisten the top of your brownie with water and top with fondant. Brownie slices best after being refrigerated overnight. Serve and enjoy!
View pics left to right, top to bottom.
Hope you are all having a great week and aren’t getting too stressed out by impending Christmas shopping!
With lots of love from the freshly-turned 25 me!
xox
C
Disclaimer: Cooking Crusade was sent Lucky Nuts to review by Nuffnang (Product Talk by Nuffnang), however the opinions in this post are my own.
Wanna keep in touch? Why not like me on Facebook by clicking here, or follow me on Twitter by clicking here 🙂
What a clever and delicious idea! Oh and HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! x
Thanks lovely! xoxo
Happy Birthday. These brownies look super good. I totally believe in being organised for Christmas – these are perfect too for the occasion.
Thanks Lizzie 🙂
Dear Christine,
Happy birthday! You seem to be well into the Xmas spirit already with these delicious looking brownies.
Thanks Chopinand. Any excuse to prolong the Christmas cheer hehehe 🙂
HAPPY BIRTHDAY! and your brownies look delicious! I love adding nuts to mine sometimes because it just gives them a little something extra 🙂
Thanks Kat!! I’d never added nuts before to brownies (silly me!!) but now I’m addicted! Sooo good!
What a great idea! And happy birthday fellow Scorpio 🙂
High five, fellow Scorpio!
Happy Birthday!! ( I miscounted it and I thought it’s on Thursday, lol). I always love flourless cake, and your recipe looks so amazing! So wonderful!!!
Thanks so much my dear xoxo
Happy Birthday! It’s my first time here and i’m already droooooling! These brownies look good but I scrolled down a little further and saw you made Mango Gelato. Mango is my weakness. I’m going to go read that post now. 😛
Oh thank you!! And thanks so much for dropping by 🙂 xoxo
These brownies look so pretty! And I praise your planning efforts! I haven’t made a single Thanksgiving dish yet this month, I will only start my Thanksgiving cooking this Thursday :), but you’re already baking for Christmas! Bravo!
Heheh thanks Julia! Ooh I’m so jealous of Thanksgiving – we don’t celebrate it in Australia but turkey, sweet potato and pumpkin pie sounds pretty amazing to me! Would love to do my own one day! I bet yours will be amazing!!
You are so lucky! Almond meal is about $10 or $15 here and so I have to grind my own. I LOVE these brownies (and super cute measuring cup girl!)
Yeah it’s quite pricey!! Grinding your own is a good option, I think! Thank you, they were a bday pressie from last year – get a lot of use out of them! 😀
Your brownies look absolutely delicious. I love all the suprises you’ve added into it as well. And happy birthday honey. Hope you had a fabulous birthday xo
Thanks so much Tina, I did! xoxo
these looks DIVINE. love the icing. will probably make them for christmas!
Thank you Meg, hope you enjoy them 🙂
Happy Birthday darling Christine!!! And yay for the full driver’s license too! 😀 x
Thank you Lorraine! Watch out Sydney roads hehehe x
Happy birthday and have a happy Thanksgiving!
Happy belated birthday Christine! Thanks for the recipe, sounds delish.
These look SO good 😀 My dad is a mega Christmas cake fan but me and my mum arent so he normally misses out. I’d def be up for making these as a win/win 🙂
Thanks Nic! They are definitely a good go-between between brownies and christmas cake methinks 🙂
I love the sound of these Christmas brownies! The cherries would go so well with the chocolate here … I will have to give this a try the next time I make brownies. And they look so elegant with the white fondant – a perfect idea for Christmas.
Thanks m’dear! The fondant was a last minute addition hehe.. I hoped it would make it just that little bit more Christmassy 😀
Happy birthday my friend, I am sure it was a fabulous one just looking at these gorgeous brownies – your photography is better than wow 😀
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
Great idea, I’m not a big fan of Christmas cake so this looks like it but tastes much better!!
Mmmm yummo! Will definitely be adding that one to the recipe book!
Oh and a huge belated happy birthday!!! Hope the “Mr” spoilt you appropriately!
PS congrats also on your full licence! 🙂
Thanks Allysia!! He sure did, I am now the proud owner of a Breville Scraper Mixer Pro which I have named Betty haha. Love it so much! Hope you enjoy this recipe xx
Yummo! Good excuse to use the Lucky Nuts to make this delectable brownies….hehehe! I love brownies =)
Hehe thanks and me too!
I know, how quickly is Christmas racing up on us! Such delicious looking brownies and flour free!
Thanks Sara! Its coming around so quickly… Where did this year go?!