Date Walnut Brownies

Normally, Santanu has a tendency of encroaching the kitchen area, particularly on weekends or his official holidays, depending on his mood. In a way, it’s good as I get two days off.

We had just returned from Switzerland and went for a picnic at St.-Germain-en-Laye with a few of Santanu’s colleagues. Santanu promised he would prepare everything by himself: simple vegetable rice and Date Walnut Brownies.

Recently, I borrowed a book on vegetarian cuisine by Nicolas Graimes from a friend. It includes light meals, main courses, tarts, salads, desserts, and more. The best part of this book is the initial descriptions of each ingredient, starting from seeds, vegetables, and different types of cooking oil, all with colorful pictures. We often see certain things in the local market but do not know how to prepare them. Neither do we know the corresponding English names, nor are they commonly available in India. So, it’s an excellent book for reference.

Last year, Santanu got ‘Pates de Dates’ from an Algerian store, and it had been sitting like a brick in our kitchen ever since. Once I got this book and found a recipe with dates, he had an eye on it.

Yum! It came out good unexpectedly. The results were rewarding; here is a picture of fudgy, moist, and candy-like brownies.

The best part is, although I didn’t do anything except being a helping hand to Santanu, everyone complimented me for it.

Even his friends from RFS wanted the recipe. These rich brownies are great for afternoon tea and make a fantastic dessert when served with crème fraîche (whipped cream) or vanilla ice cream. I will be infringing copyright if I copy the recipe here, but I still couldn’t refrain myself.

Ingredients

• 350 gm plain dark chocolate
• 225 gm or 1 cup butter
• 3 large eggs
• 115 gm or ½ cup caster sugar
• 5 ml vanilla essence
• 75 gm sifted plain flour
• 225 gm or ½ cup dates, peeled, stoned, and chopped
• 200 gm or 1 ¾ cup walnut pieces
• Icing sugar for dusting (optional)

Procedure

1. Melt chocolate and butter in a bowl over a pan of hot, not boiling, water until they are smooth.
2. In a separate bowl, beat eggs, sugar, and vanilla.
3. Add this to the chocolate mixture and fold in flour, dates, and nuts.
4. Bake for 30-40 minutes in a preheated oven at 190°C.
5. Lastly, dust with icing sugar.

Since they had to be chilled prior to cutting, I ate my brownie cold. Normally, I can’t resist testing because of the strong baking aroma. I think the fudginess was probably accentuated by chilling, so my sample was especially moist and chewy with a crumbly, crunchy top, tempered by the occasional chunk of walnut.