This week’s SMS was selected by Tiffany of A Spoonful of Laughter and A Heap of Love: chocolate walnut brownies! I’d already made these brownies (they were part of the Brooklyn Brownout Cake the group made back in April of 09), but when I read back through my post for the cake I noted that I’d really enjoyed the brownies, and it’s a dessert Shane will help eat, so I didn’t see any reason not to make them again. We almost never turn down brownies around here! I skipped the walnuts last time I made this recipe, and did the same again this time. As a general rule, I always leave the nuts out of recipes unless I know for certain I’m going to give the dessert away to someone who enjoys them.
Since this is the second brownie recipe I’m posting this week (you can see the minty chocolate brownies I shared on Tuesday here), I’d hoped to do something fun with this recipe to make them just a little more special than plain chocolate brownies. Inspiration was lacking though – I couldn’t come up with anything other than adding peanut butter or mint – and I’ve made plenty of desserts combining those flavors so I didn’t want to go there again. For some reason my brownies cooked much more quickly than the recipe indicated they would. The indicated baking time was 45-50 minutes but when I checked mine just after 30 minutes they were on the verge of being slightly overbaked. I’m curious if anyone else had this issue…
I’ve tried so many brownie recipes I don’t think I can truly make comparisons any more. I’d have to dedicate a whole day to making several of the recipes side by side to really note the differences and pick a favorite. That said, these brownies are delicious! With 2 sticks of butter, quality unsweetened chocolate and a lot of sugar, they were bound to be anything but. I thought they were quite rich and dense, so a few bites of one was all I needed to satisfy me. Since I can’t seem to leave well enough alone, I still haven’t ruled out the possibility of making a simple peanut butter frosting to spread on some of the brownies. Though if I leave them plain, we could just throw them in a bowl as the base of an ice cream sundae – decisions, decisions 
Many thanks to Tiffany for hosting this week! She will share the recipe on her blog today or you can find it on pages 82-83 of The Sweet Melissa Baking Book.
Lemon Bars
Glazed Grapefruit Cake
Orange Sherbet
Meyer Lemon Pound Cake
Gorgeous pics! Mine were really dry – I’m sure it’s because of the baking time. And I bet it’s that way with a lot of us!
You cut your brownies perfectly! They look great!
I am impressed how evenly and neatly, you got those brownies. They are stunning.
Yes I agree, your brownies are cut into such perfect squares without even a loose crumb in sight!! beautiful photography that’s inspiring me to want to bake some of these myself!
Nice photos Tracey. The light color on the top of the brownies is a nice contrast to the dark chocolately interior.
Finding the perfect brownie seems like a daunting task. I would like to try the recipe you posted for TWD, Rick Katz’s Brownies for Julia. The brownie search continues.
Yours are so gorgeous and moist and mine were dry little bricks! I wish I’d checked mine at 30 minutes…I waited until 37 and they were pretty dry.
Yes, these were my second pan this week too…
Yours look yummy.
Gorgeous! I have found that the cooking time in several of Melissa’s recipes are off.
They look perfect! I baked mine for 50 minutes and they were super fudgy. A little too fundy actually.
I wonder why…
Katie xox
These little beauties all stacked up look wonderful!
Love your brownies! Between TWD, recipes that we have come across along the way and SMS, we do bake some serious brownies. I saw Julia Child in Melissa’s introduction to this recipe and I was ready to start baking =).
Your photos and presentation always look gorgeous Tracey! Glad this is a goodie both you and your hubby will eat and Happy baking.
they look like really good brownies, dense with flavor!! I know what you mean about cooking faster than you thought…It just seems to happen when you least expect it
Brownies!! MMMMmmmmm!!!!
Your brownies look so perfect. I had the some issue with them being done early. I should have them checked them way before the baking time was up.
Hmmm…you could top them with PB ice cream! Now THAT sounds like a good idea. They look so fudgy!
I immediately thought of ice cream Sundays too when I tasted these =) Your brownies look great! I’m impressed by how crisply they are cut and would love to know how you get them that way!
Your brownies look terrific! Mine were done in 30 minutes; it seems like a lot of the recipes in the SM book have longer baking times than my oven.
Dedicating a whole day to brownie-baking and tasting sounds like a lot of fun!
Your brownies look great- seem much fudgier than mine turn out (which is a good thing in my book)
Your brownies look yummy. I love love love the idea of peanut butter frosting! That sounds so delish!
These look so good…I could never cut a brownie that perfectly:)
Great pictures, Tracey. They look fudgy and super chocolatey. I skipped these because like you said, we’ve made them before. So many other/new things to bake which is why I skipped these.
How did u gve the brownies such a good finishing?? They look yummy!!
i am amazed..
Thanks everyone! For those who asked, I stuck the brownies in the refrigerator overnight which made them very easy to cut into neat squares.
Those brownies look great… I know what you mean about trying so many brownie recipe, too! I love to try new ones, but then I can never remember which ones were really the “best”
Wow, thanks for the tip about keeping it in the fridge overnight to cut them out pretty! I should do that from now on so that I won’t end up with weird cuts.