Katharine Hepburn’s Raspberry Brownies
(Another recipe re-posted in the Louisville Courier-Journal Sunday magazine in February 1986.)
· 2 ounces unsweetened chocolate
· ¼ pound (1 stick) unsalted butter plus 1 tablespoon melted
· ¼ teaspoon salt
· ½ teaspoon vanilla
· 1 cup sugar
· 2 large eggs
· ¼ cup unsifted all-purpose flour
· Generous 1 cup walnuts or pecans, broken into medium-sized pieces
· 1/3 cup seedless red raspberry preserves
Line an 8-by-8-by-2-inch baking pan with aluminum foil, smoothed down as much as possible. Brush the foil with 1 tablespoon melted butter. Set aside.
Melt chocolate and rest of butter together over low heat (or in a double boiler), stirring frequently until melted. Remove from heat. Stir in salt, vanilla, sugar and the eggs, 1 at a time, stirring well to blend. Add the flour. Stir until batter is smooth. Fold in the nuts.
Pour half of the batter, about 1¼ cups, into the prepared pan, and smooth the surface. Place pan in the freezer for about 30 minutes or until the batter is firm enough to spread on a layer of raspberry preserves.
Spread a very thin layer of preserves over the frozen brownie batter layer. Then drop on spoonfuls of the rest of the batter, smoothing it carefully over the raspberry layer. Let stand at room temperature until frozen layer melts.
Heat oven to 325 degrees. Adjust rack 1/3 up from bottom. Bake brownies for 40 minutes, or until a toothpick tests clean.
Cool to room temperature, then freeze until cake is very firm. Cover pan with a cutting board, turn pan over to release the cake. Remove the aluminum foil, and turn cake right-side up.
Cut into 16 squares.
BetK