Maltesers Brownies

I hope that the new year has treated you well so far. I enjoyed lots of quality time with my family in these first few days of 2016. But let's go back to our New Year's Eve dinner for a moment because I would never want to deprive you of what I consider to be some of the best brownies I've ever had. These really are quite special. They are rich and chocolatey, but not too sweet. The malt milk powder gives them their distinct taste and the cream cheese frosting is simply to die for... This is what I call "love at first bite".

Recipe

(from the sensational "Lomelinos Backen" by Linda Lomelino)

Ingredients

For the Brownies:

75g dark chocolate (I used 70%)

125g butter

150g plain flour

175g milk powder (I used Horlicks malt powder which we got from England, I don't know whether this is available in Switzerland, but I will let you know once I find out)

180g sugar

50g cocoa powder

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the frosting:

75g soft butter

120g icing sugar

4 tablespoons cocoa powder

3 tablespoons milk powder

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

175g cream cheese (I used Philadelphia)

25g dark chocolate

25g Maltesers

a pinch of fleur de sel

Preheat the oven to 175°C. Line a brownie tin (about 15x25cm) with parchment paper. 

Chop the chocolate into coarse pieces and set aside. Melt the butter in a small saucepan. In a bowl, mix flour, milk powder, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, mix eggs and vanilla. Sift in flour mixture and beat until you have a smooth dough. The dough will be very thick, but the recipe says that this is alright. Add chopped chocolate. Fill the dough into your prepared tin and bake for about 25-30 minutes. Let the brownies cool in the tin.

When the brownies have cooled completely, make the frosting: Beat the butter with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy. Add sugar, cocoa powder and milk powder and keep beating. Then, add vanilla and cream cheese until you have a smooth cream. With a spatula, spread the frosting on top of your brownies. Chop chocolate and maltesers and scatter on top. Sprinkle a little fleur de sel onto the brownies. I used about 50g of maltesers and left out the dark chocolate and the fleur de sel because Edi doesn't like the combination of chocolate and salt which is a shame, but what are you going to do…