They’re so easy to make too no pastry rolling and blind-baking, just a lovely, buttery press-into-the-pan base that cooks until crisp and goes beautifully with the indulgent nutty topping.
Ingredients
For the Base
- 9 tbsp (125 g) butter
- 1½ cups (200 g) plain/all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup (50 g) caster/superfine sugar
For the topping
- 6 eggs, beaten
- ⅔ cup (200 g) maple syrup
- ¼ cup (50 g) dark brown muscovado sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla bean paste
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 9 oz (250 g) pecan nuts, coarsely chopped
- 1¾ oz (50 g) plain pretzels
- a 30 x 17 x 2.5 cm/11¾ x 6¾ x 1 inch brownie pan, lightly greased and lined with baking parchment
How to Make It
- Preheat the oven to 180˚C (350˚F) Gas 4. For the base, rub the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the sugar, and draw everything together into a soft ball. Press it into the base of the prepared brownie pan and bake for 10–15 minutes, until golden and firm.
- For the topping, beat the eggs, maple syrup and sugar together. Stir in the vanilla bean paste and cinnamon.
- Once the base is cooked, immediately scatter over the chopped pecan nuts whilst it is still hot. Break the pretzels in half and scatter them over the nuts. Spoon the maple syrup mixture evenly over everything and return to the oven for a further 25–30 minutes, until the topping is set. Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the pan, before cutting into squares.