I ummmed and aaaahead about making these for ages. It sounded too good to be true. On one hand I thought it should work because nutella would act as the fat, flour and sugar. But then I thought it doesn’t have the correct ratios for the perfect cake described in this book. So I read a few reviews and they were all raving about how good these are and I saw a similar recipe in Nigella’s last book. Despite the red flags I thought I’d give it a go, I couldn’t bear the thought of this recipe being fantastic without me knowing about it.

Ingredients

4 large eggs

1 cup (about 270g) nutella

I cheated a tiny bit and added a few extras, I don’t know if they made much difference if I’m honest but they were

A pinch of salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

40g chopped, toasted hazelnuts

Method

Preheat oven to 170°C, line an 8″ square tin. Whisk the eggs with the salt until they have tripled in volume, about 8 mins or so. from this….. ….to this! Meanwhile, warm up the nutella either in a hot water bath or the microwave until it is runny and smooth. Whisk the vanilla into the eggs then on low-medium speed pour in the nutella in a slow steady stream. The mix will deflate but that is normal apparently. Fold in the nuts. Pour into prepared in and bake for 20-25 mins until it is set and there’s no wobble.

Nigella’s version of the recipe advised to wrap these and let them sit overnight….she was right. I couldn’t wait so I had a bit while still warm and when completely cold and it tasted overwhelmingly like a sweet omelette…absolutely disgusting! But I did as I was told and unusually it wasn’t difficult to leave them alone for a day(or two). When I unwrapped them I was suprised to see that they had indeed become fudgier and altogether much more agreeable in both taste and texture.

But still a long, long way off what I would expect from a brownie. Yes it’s a quick and easy recipe (if you have an electric mixer) but I’d rather take the time and trouble to make something really delicious. Like this!