I know, I know. It’s January and everyone’s trying to eat healthy. We’ve been eating sugar cookies and fudge and candy canes for the last month. But isn’t life about balance? And I promise you, these brownies are worth it. Besides, it’s less painful to ease off that sugar high than go cold turkey, right?
These are an easy way to make a quick brownie recipe into something a little fancier and a little more unique.
You’re going to make two separate batters: one for the chocolate layers and one for the tahini layers.
The hardest part of this is melting the chocolate. Make sure the water in your double-boiler set-up isn’t boiling too hard, or you might cook the chocolate. But don’t be intimidated! Just simmer and stir and you’ll be fine.
And then layer those batter babies together.
You got yourself a stew going. Err brownies.
Don’t forget a sprinkle of chocolate chips and sea salt! You won’t regret it. Just try not to dump the chocolate chips all over the floor like I did…
Tahini Brownies
Spice up a classic brownie with the nuttiness of tahini
Ingredients
Tahini batter:
- 1 cup tahini
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon flaky sea salt or slightly less coarse/kosher salt
Chocolate batter
- 3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, roughly chopped (make sure to use baking chocolate, not chocolate chips!)
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon flaky sea salt or slightly less coarse/kosher salt
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour*
On top:
- 1/4 cup semi- or bittersweet chocolate chips
Instructions
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Heat oven to 350°F.
Spray an 8-inch square baking pan with non-stick spray or butter, or line with parchment (and also spray/butter). I use parchment whenever possible – easier clean up and easier to get them out of the pan!
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For the tahini batter: combine all ingredients in medium bowl and stir until smooth-ish. Batter will be thick.
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For the chocolate batter: First, melt your chocolate. Bring a small saucepan of water to a gentle simmer. Put butter in a medium bowl, and place bowl on top of saucepan to create a double-boiler. Once the butter starts to melt, add the chocolate and stir continuously (I prefer to use a spatula here) until just a couple small bits remain. Take the bowl off the heat and stir until fully melted. Be careful not to leave the chocolate on the heat too long – it will cook! Alternatively, you can do this in the microwave – but do it in short 20 second bursts (stirring between), depending on the power of your microwave. Finally, whisk in sugar, eggs, vanilla and salt (in that order). Add flour and stir until just combined.
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Now the fun part – putting it all together! Spread a thin layer of the chocolate batter in the bottom of the square pan (about a third to a half of the chocolate batter). Next, add the tahini batter on top. Since it’s thick, I find it’s easiest to just drop in little scoops all over until mostly covered. Even those dollops out, but don't press too hard or you'll displace your chocolate layer. It doesn’t need to be perfect! Spread remaining chocolate batter on top, and add chocolate chips all over.
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Bake for 26 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out mostly batter-free. I always err on the fudgier side, but depends on your own preference! I'd recommend letting them fully cool before cutting -- but I won't tell if you don't. Brownies keep well at room temperature, but are also delicious out of the fridge (or even the freezer if you’re into that sort of thing).
Recipe Notes
*You can make these gluten-free (or just really really fudgey) by omitting the flour entirely. You'll probably need to increase the baking time by a couple minutes -- and fair warning, they'll be GOOEY. But SO delicious.