Wattleseed & macadamia brownies

June 12, 2021

   

I'm not sure how many brownie recipes one food blog needs, but this food blog is all the better for including the one appearing in Warndu Mai (Good Food) Cookbook. I received this cookbook as a very thoughtful gift for my last birthday, from a group of friends I met through blogging. The book is centred around native ingredients, and how we can introduce them into our cooking. There are simple, daily foods like wattleseed coffee and native tea, damper, and wild raspberry jam, through to celebration desserts such as Illawarra plum and lemon myrtle limoncello trifle, and strawberry gum pavlova. There's plenty of bush meat recipes (kangaroo, seafood, emu and crocodile) and even a green ant citronello for the non-veg*ns.

A brownie isn't quite so daring, but it's the winter pandemic-lockdown comfort food I was drawn to make and eat. I was low on wattleseed, so I topped up at Gewürzhaus, and I'll try to plan ahead and buy from Mabu Mabu in future. Then there were a couple of substitutions for convenience: golden syrup instead of carob syrup, and walnut oil instead of macadamia oil. I can see a couple more that would earn this vegan status: margarine instead of butter, and perhaps aquafaba instead of the egg whites.

This is a really great brownie! Probably more cakey than fudgy, but with the right chewiness around the edges. I picked up the wattleseed in my first mouthful, but became desensitised to it as I continued eating. The macadamia chunks stand out from the batter more than the usual, softer walnuts and pecans. I'm not generally all that interested in icing on a brownie but this one is unforgettable, a rich buttercream that contains more chocolate than icing sugar - I can see myself transferring it to other cakes in future too.

This is a sweet but subtly-spiced start to my cooking with Warndu Mai. I'm excited to track down many of its other less familiar-to-me ingredients and get to know them better. 

 

   

Wattleseed & macadamia brownies

(very slightly adapted from Damien Coulthard & Rebecca Sullivan's 

Warndu Mai (Good Food) Cookbook)

brownie batter

65g butter

250g sugar

2 egg whites

3 tablespoons cocoa

1 cup plain flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon golden syrup

1 tablespoon ground wattleseed

3 tablespoons macadamia or walnut oil

pinch of salt

100g toasted macadamias, roughly chopped

icing 

120g dark chocolate

125g butter, at room temperature

70g icing sugar

1 teaspoon ground wattleseed

Preheat an oven to 180°C. Line a 20cm square cake tin with baking paper and spray it with oil.

Cream together the butter and sugar with an electric beater. Gradually add the egg whites. Sift in the cocoa, flour and baking powder, and beat gently until just combined. Slowly beat in the syrup, wattleseed, oil and salt. Fold in the macadamias. Pour the mixture into the cake tin, smooth over the top, and bake for 25 minutes. This should allow for soft centre and a chewy edge. Allow the brownie to cool.

To make the icing, gently melt the chocolate using your preferred method and allow it to cool a little. In a medium bowl, cream the butter with an electric beater. Sift in the icing sugar and beat until well mixed and fluffy. Slowly beat the melted chocolate and wattleseed into the butter. Spread the icing over the brownies, and slice to serve.