Welcome to the second edition of Holler Meets Hollywood where I, a modern Appalachian woman, tackles the recipes of renowned baker and host of the Great British Bakeoff, Paul Hollywood. Check out my first adventure here!
Paul says his brownies are the best ever. Are they???
Well…YES.
Y’all these brownies were absolutely divine. They were quite fudgy which is how I prefer my brownies. The recipe uses three kinds of chocolate plus cocoa nibs on top. That’s a lot of chocolate and you can truly taste it all in each bite. Heavenly.
Here’s my review:
Difficulty: I’m giving this a moderate because it does require that you melt chocolate and butter in a double boiler type situation. I used a glass bowl overtop water simmering in a saucepan. It’s not exactly difficult but you do have to be cautious and it does take your full attention while you’re doing it.
Equipment needed: You are asked to use a brownie pan which I didn’t own until my friend April gave me one for Christmas (Hi April!). This one is pretty close. As with all of his recipes, you need a food scale. I use this one. You’ll need a hand mixer and also an appropriate bowl/saucepan for the double boiler situation I mentioned.
Ingredient issues: The recipe called for “plain” chocolate as well as milk chocolate and dark cholate chunks. I really had no idea what “plain” chocolate meant so I used baking chocolate. For the chunks, I used milk chocolate and semi-sweet chips. The recipe also called for a tablespoon of cocoa nibs to sprinkle on top. I was tempted to skip this because they are pricey but I decided I wanted this to be an authentic experience so I splurged on them. I couldn’t find them locally so I ordered these from Amazon.
Verdict: Delicious! I will definitely make these again. I gave most of this batch to my brownie loving niece and her roommate and they agreed that they are awesome.
But wait, there’s more!
I follow Paul Hollywood on social media and right after I made these, he asked what everyone was baking this weekend. I shared my brownie photo and he retweeted me!
So as you can see, we’re best friends now and as such I can share his recipe with y’all
Give it a try and let me know what you think! Be sure to follow me on Facebook and Instagram @mindascooking to see what I bake up next.
From the heart and from the holler,
Minda