serves
10-15
prep
10 minutes
cook
1:15 hour
difficulty
Easy
serves
10-15
people
preparation
10
minutes
cooking
1:15
hour
difficulty
Easy
level
Ingredients
- 300 g (10½ oz) macadamia nuts, roughly chopped
- 80 g (2¾ oz) butter, chopped
- 300 g (10½ oz) bittersweet chocolate, roughly chopped
- 300 g (10½ oz) caster (superfine) sugar
- 220 g (8 oz/) whole egg (approx. 4 eggs)
- 100 g (3½ oz) sour cream (or sourdough starter, see Note)
- 60 g (2 oz) gluten-free plain (all-purpose) flour
- 40 g (1½ oz/ ⅓ cup) cocoa powder
- 7 g (¼ oz) baking powder
- 3 g ( ½ tsp) fine salt
- 100 g (3½ oz) bunya nuts, boiled and cut into 3 mm (⅛ in) slices
- 120 g (4½ oz) raw chocolate, chopped
- 5 g (⅛ oz) ooray plum powder (see Note)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 160°C (320°F). Grease and line a 20 cm (8 in) square cake tin.
- Toast the macadamia nuts on a baking tray in the oven for 12 minutes, then remove and keep warm. Increase the oven temperature to 170°C (340°F).
- Add the butter and bittersweet chocolate to a heatproof bowl and melt over a bain-marie (deep tray filled with hot water).
- Add the sugar and eggs to a large bowl and whisk to just combine. Add the chocolate mixture to the eggs and sugar. Ensure the chocolate mix is quite warm (between 40–50°C/105–120°F) to stop it from seizing. Add the sour cream (or sourdough starter) to a bowl and break up any lumps with a spatula, then fold into the mix.
- Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt and fold into the mixture. Pour into the cake tin and arrange the bunya nuts on top of the batter.
- Bake for 60 minutes. As soon as the brownie comes out of the oven, scatter with the raw chocolate and dust with the ooray plum powder. Allow to cool in the tin before unmoulding and cutting into portions.
Note
- If you’re game, replace the sour cream with sourdough starter, which gives a more pronounced nutty flavour to this dish.
- Other substitutions: macadamia and bunya nuts can be replaced with almonds; ooray plum powder with raspberry powder; and raw chocolate with 70% dark chocolate.
- Ooray plum, also called Davidson plum, is native to north Queensland. Ooray plum powder is available from specialist retailers. Bunya nuts are also available from specialist retailers.
This is an edited extract from Modern Australian Baking by Christopher Thé (Hardie Grant Books, HB $60). Photography by Chris Chen.
Cook's Notes
Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.
