Fruitcake-inspired Brownies by JessicaBakes
We know what you’re thinking: Fruitcake? Blech! But before you move on, let us reassure you that JessicaBakes has taken the best elements of fruitcake -- okay, not the booze, but lots of different dried and candied fruit and nuts -- and crammed them into a rich, gooey chocolate brownie. It’s an embarrassment of riches. The brownies are intensely chocolatey, and almost mousselike (they call for 5 whole eggs and a mere ¾ cup of flour); the extreme chocolate factor might even be overwhelming without the tartness and crunch of the fruit and nuts, which are an ideal counterpoint. Fruitcake-haters, rejoice! – A&M
Recipe Slideshow
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Are we making fruitcake? No! We're making brownies: pecans, walnuts, dates, nutmeg, baking powder, dried cherries, bittersweet chocolate, hazelnuts, candied orange bits, butter, flour, vanilla, cinnamon!
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A happy holiday sight.
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First step: mix a bunch of chocolate into a bunch of melted butter.
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And stir.
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Until it's smooth as pudding.
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Dry ingredients ahoy! We like grating nutmeg on this little rasp but a fine Microplane-style grater works too.
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If you don't have a proper sifter (or don't want to dig it out of the cabinet) just use a fine strainer to sift the dry ingredients and tap, tap, tap the side.
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We went rogue and mixed the dried fruit bits with the flour mixture -- they were sticky, and this helped keep them from clinging together.
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Nuts, are you ready? Are you toasted?
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Yes!
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Onward to wet ingredients -- starting with 5 eggs!
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And a pile of lightly packed brown sugar.
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James Ransom, the wonder photographer, captures the secret dance moves of vanilla.
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Once the eggs and sugar are thick and pale (a good 4-5 minutes on high speed in the mixer), the cooled chocolate-butter elixir gets folded in.
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A deft fold keeps the mix light and airy.
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Keep on folding for the dry ingredients and nuts (except the pecans, which get to star on top of the brownies).
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A paper towel, wax paper, the butter wrapper itself, or your fingers (if you want to get messy) -- all make good dish butterers.
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Bring the batter!
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And pecans to dot the top.
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Doesn't look much like fruitcake, does it? Sneaky.
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All the good surprises of fruitcake lurk inside, with none of the bad ones. Brilliant.
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