Christmas Brownies

It's true: children make you realize how time flies. It's the 24th of December and our little daughter is 9 months old already. Julia is healthy and happy and she's conquering her world on all fours now. She has already spent a considerable amount in the kitchen with me and I'm looking forward to baking together with her. But for now, I'm just really grateful for having had a wonderful - demanding, but wonderful - year full of discoveries.

I was thinking about 2015 lately and I realized that I haven't baked a single batch of brownies in the past 12 months. And as I cannot let this year go by without having had a proper brownie, I decided to bake brownies for our annual family Christmas feast. These here are wonderfully rich with a melt-in-your-mouth texture, some crunch from the walnuts and a festive flavor from the spices. Perfect to please a crowd. And with that, I wish all of you a merry Christmas and happy holidays.

Recipe
(Original recipe in German here)

200g dark chocolate
50g milk chocolate
250g butter
100g walnuts, coarsly chopped
150g flour
0.5 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon or gingerbread spice mixture (I used gingerbread spice because I just love the smell of it)
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
4 eggs
200g sugar
icing sugar, for dusting

Line a brownie tin (about 25x25cm) with parchment paper. Preheat the oven to 180°C.

In a saucepan, melt dark and milk chocolate together with the butter on low heat. Stir occasionally. When everything has melted, set aside and let cool a bit.

In a bowl, mix the flour with the salt, the spice, the cocoa powder and the walnuts. Set aside.

In another bowl, beat sugar end eggs with an electric mixer until pale, thick and creamy. Then, add, the melted chocolate and mix well. Fold in the dry ingredients and mix until all is well combined.

Pour your mixture into the prepared tin and bake for about 25-30 minutes. Let cool in the tin. Cut into squares and dust with icing sugar before serving.