Nathan Outlaw's Cornish Salted Fudge Brownies - Random Recipes #22

This month Dom tasked us with randomly selecting a recipe. Not from a book, but from our piles of clippings and odd cuttings filed away in recipe books - you mean I'm not the only one that does this? I've been squirrelling away various recipe cuttings for years and have probably lost more than I currently have. I cut them out because I really like the look of the recipe and know I have to make it very soon. Then it somehow disappears into a pile, as a bookmark and occasionally into an actual file. Now, I may not be as organised as I'd like to be and I can't guarantee that every chocolate recipe clipping is in the same place, but I do have a cuttings folder of chocolate recipes. This was the one I thrust under CT's nose, told him to close his eyes, put in his hand and pull something out, which he obligingly did.

And out he drew a recipe from Food, a local magazine focussing on the South West: a recipe from celebrity chef Nathan Outlaw no less. Nathan Outlaw is one of Cornwall's Michelin starred chefs and although I've never eaten any of his food, Fiona of London Unattached is quite a fan. His recipe for chocolate, fudge and Cornish sea salt brownies put a happy smile on my face. I always have a tub of Cornish sea salt on hand as I use it to make my weekly loaves, so that wasn't a problem. The Cornish fudge wasn't a problem either. We have our very own fudge maker here in Liskeard, Gingham Chicken and very popular her fudge is proving to be. I had to adapt the recipe a little as the quantities were large. I used 100% wholemeal spelt, which I find works perfectly in brownies.

This is how I made:

Cornish Salted Fudge Brownies

• Melted 110g unsalted butter in a large pan with 110g of Fairtrade 85% chocolate.
• Stirred in 160g dark brown sugar and took of the heat to cool slightly.
• Beat in two large duck eggs.
• Stirred in 110g wholemeal spelt flour
• Added a scant tsp of Cornish sea salt and stirred.
• Chopped 50g of local Cornish fudge and stirred into the mix.
• Poured into an 8" square cake mould and baked at 150C for 20 minutes (as the recipe stated). It was still runny at this point, so I turned the oven up to 180C and baked for another 7 minutes. It was well risen and the top was crusty, but it was still gooey (not runny) in the middle - just right.
• Left to cool then cut into 9 squares.

Even though I love salted caramel and salted chocolate, I did find it very strange at first bite to taste salt in a brownie. In fact, I'm sitting on the fence on this one and can't make my mind up if I like it. I don't dislike it and the brownies were lovely and fudgy and it was fun to come across the chunks of fudge, which gave additional flavour and texture. CT, whilst also sitting on the fence, managed to polish off a fair few of them.

These brownies are my submission for this month's Random Recipes with the Dashing Dom of Belleau Kitchen.

I'm also adding submitting this to Jac's Bookmarked Recipes from Tinned Tomatoes.