Chocolate Orange Brownies

If you are after a moist, fudgy brownie you can not go wrong with this chocolate orange brownies recipe. These are super moist, fudgy, delicious and so easy to make!

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• Cost To Make
• Why You'll Love This Recipe:
• Ingredients In This Recipe
• Equipment
• Step By Step Instructions
• Serving Size
• Recipe Tips
• Variations
• Frequently Asked Questions
• More Sweet Recipes
• Recipe
• Comments

Easy to make chocolate orange brownies. These are super fudgy with a nutty texture (but you can make it without the nuts too). Can be made in advance and frozen too!

Cost To Make

Estimated cost = $9.64 or $0.80 a serve

Why You'll Love This Recipe:

• These chocolate orange brownies are not only fudgy and moist they have a delicious nutty crunchy texture.
• These homemade brownies are made with dark chocolate and not cocoa powder giving them the best flavour ever.
• Serve them with tea or coffee for a lovely afternoon treat, or warm and enjoy with a scoop of ice cream for and easy dessert.
• You could also package them to give them as sweet treats for Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day, or Christmas.

Ingredients In This Recipe

The printable recipe further down the page has the complete list of ingredients, including quantities and step-by-step instructions.

Dark chocolate – We like dark chocolate because it is not as sweet as milk chocolate and it has a stronger flavor. It also helps to give the brownies a nice dark chocolate brown color.

Brown sugar is white sugar coated with molasses making it soft and moist which is ideal for making fudgy brownies.

All-purpose flour (plain flour) and not self-rising flour should be used to make brownies. The lack of a raising agent in the flour gives brownies the dense texture that they are known for.

Orange zest is just the outside skin of an orange that’s been finely grated.

You can make orange zest a number of ways:

• Use a grater and grate the orange skin on the side with the smallest holes.
• Use a micro plain, this looks like a traditional carpenter’s rasp (file) and is used to finely grate foods like cheese, fresh nutmeg and for zesting.

Eggs – use large eggs with an average weight of about 56 grams (2 ounces). Don’t use cold eggs straight from the fridge, allow them to come to room temperature before using.

Butter – salted or unsalted butter can be used.

Nuts – we used pecans to give the brownies a crunchy texture, but you can use another nut. For a nuttier flavor, the nuts can be lightly toasted before chopping into smaller pieces and adding to the brownie batter.

White chocolate chips (optional)– these don’t melt when cooked will give the brownies added texture and flavor.

Vanilla – use vanilla bean paste or extract.

Equipment

• 19 cm (8 inch) square tin or 26 x 13 cm (10 x 5 inch) rectangular tin with sides that are at least 2.5 cm (1 inch) high.
• Double boiler = small saucepan and a small heatproof bowl to sit on top of saucepan.
• Mixing spoon or spatula
• Sieve
• Sharp knife
• Cutting board
• Grater or zester

Step By Step Instructions

Step 1 – Place the brown sugar, butter, and chocolate into a large heat-proof bowl. Place the heatproof bowl over a saucepan of just simmering water to melt the butter and chocolate.

Choose a small size saucepan because the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water.

The heat should also be kept low so as not to overheat the chocolate mixture, it should be only slightly warm.

If you have overheated the chocolate mixture, allow it to cool down before moving on to the next steps.

Otherwise, in the next step, you could end up with chunks of cooked egg in the batter.

Step 2 – Mix in the orange zest and vanilla, then mix in the eggs one at a time.

Step 3 – Add half of the nuts, all the flour, and white chocolate chips. Gently mix the brownie batter until all the ingredients are just combined.

Step 5 - Bake in a preheated oven, on the middle shelf for 30 – 40 minutes or until it is almost cooked.

You can tell when the chocolate orange brownies are done by look and feel.

The outside edges should look and feel firm and the center should look and feel like it can do with a little more cooking, but it should not be runny.

If it does need a little more cooking, keep cooking and check again after five minutes and continue like this until it’s done.

Remove from the oven and place on a cake rack and allow to cool completely.

Then cover and store in the fridge for several hours or overnight before serving.

Chilling them will allow the flavors and texture to developed for the best-tasting brownies.

Serving Size

How Many Chocolate Orange Brownies Does This Recipe Make?

That really depends on you! I have written the recipe to make 12 medium size brownies, but you can make smaller or larger brownie pieces.

For us, we will cut smaller pieces and get about 18 – 24 out of this recipe. This is because of the rich chocolate nature of these brownies.

Recipe Tips

General tips for making brownies

• Don’t beat the ingredients together rather gently fold the brownie batter until just combined and there are no clumps left.
• Always use eggs and butter at room temperature, this will help give a lighter texture to the brownies. Get the eggs and butter out of the fridge about 1 hour before you start.
• Use brown sugar and not white sugar. Brown sugar has molasses in it and this will help to make the brownies fudge like.
• Make sure to spread the batter evenly into the baking pan for even cooking.
• Every oven is different, and temperature plays a key factor in how quickly they will bake. So, use an oven thermometer to check the temperature if are in doubt.
• Use a timer, to avoid over cooking.
• Use appropriate bake ware. The best pans are aluminium as these absorb heat much quicker than glass or ceramic dishes.
• Turn the tin 180 degrees halfway during cooking time will also help with even cooking. It will also prevent a spot from being over cooked if your oven has a hot spot.
• Always line the tins with baking paper. This will stop the brownies from sticking to the tin and it also makes it easier to get them out.
• Don’t be in a rush to eat them right away, if you can, leave them overnight or at the very least, a few hours. This will help them “settle in” and allow them to develop the flavours and texture that you want from a brownie.

Variations

• Replace the pecans with almonds, walnuts, macadamia nuts, peanuts, pistachios, Brazil nuts or a combination.
• Leave out the nuts for a smooth fudge like brownie or replace the nuts with things like; broken pretzels, broken graham crackers (or plain cookies), chopped mints, broken Oreo's for a crunchy texture or more chocolate chips.
• For a stronger orange flavour an extra teaspoon of orange zest.
• If you don’t have oranges use ½ - 1 teaspoon orange extract to flavour the brownies. But do be careful and don't use too much of the extract as it can become overpowering.

Frequently Asked Questions

I do hope you try this recipe for chocolate orange brownies. If you do make it! Please come back and leave a comment below because I would love to know how it went.

Recipe