Sophie Grigson's pecan brownies recipe

Plain chocolate, light muscovado sugar, vanilla extract, and pecan nuts make up these moist pecan brownies.

The pecans bring a sweet, earthy flavour to the brownies. This recipe makes 16 brownie squares baked in 25 minutes. We’ve used dark, plain chocolate in this recipe but you could swap for milk chocolate instead if preferred. 

This recipe is shared by food writer Sophie Grigson, author of Exploding Tomatoes and Other Stories. 

Ingredients

• 110g (4oz) plain chocolate, broken into squares
• 110g (4oz) unsalted butter
• 125g (4oz) caster sugar
• 175g (6oz) light muscovado sugar
• 150g (5oz) plain flour
• Generous pinch of salt
• 2 eggs
• 1tsp vanilla extract
• 110g (4oz) chopped pecans

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 170ºC (325ºF, gas mark 3) and base-line a 20cm (8") square shallow baking tin.
2. Put the chocolate and the butter into a bowl and melt gently over a pan of barely simmering water.
3. Next, stir in the two sugars and the vanilla extract. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, and then mix in the flour, salt and the pecans. Don't overdo the mixing - a brownie batter is better if it's a little unevenly mixed. Remember, you don't want to get too much air into the mixture - think fudgy all the way.
4. Scrape into the prepared tin and bake in the centre of the oven for about 25-35 mins until set but not solid. Cool in the tin, then cut into squares. If there are any squares that are not gobbled up within the next hour, store those in an airtight tin.

Top tips for making pecan brownies

Swap the pecans for other nuts instead such as cashew nuts, brazils, hazelnuts or walnuts.

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