The Academy Awards are Sunday and to mark the occasion, here’s a brownie recipe attributed to Katharine Hepburn, who won the Oscar for Best Actress an astonishing four times and was nominated eight other times.
One of those nominations was for David Lean’s wonderful 1955 film, Summertime, in which Venice was the real star. This might be cinema sacrilege, but it’s her only role I enjoy. I’m just not a fan.
Her brownies are a different story. I tore the recipe out of a magazine a long time ago and ran across it again years later in Molly O’Neill’s New York Cookbook. When I finally tried it I had a pan of chewy and very chocolaty brownies. There’s not much flour so they’re rather thin and dense. And cleanup is only one saucepan: the brownies are mixed in the same pan used for melting the chocolate and butter. That’s worth an award in my book.
Katharine Hepburn’s Brownies
2 oz/56g unsweetened chocolate
4 oz/113g unsalted butter
1 cup/200g sugar
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup/31g all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp table salt
1 cup/120g chopped walnuts
Spray or grease and flour an 8″ x 8″ pan. Set a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 325F/165C/Gas 3.
In a heavy, medium saucepan over low heat, melt the chocolate and butter, stirring constantly until completely melted.
Remove from heat. Stir in the sugar. Add the eggs and vanilla and stir until smooth. Stir in the remaining ingredients and mix until smooth.
Transfer to pan and bake about 40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Let cool before cutting into 16 squares.
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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Okay. I must make these.
Two awards!
Agreed! I suppose it could be done in the nuker, but butter and chocolate melt so differently it’s not worth the potential problems.
Do try these. They’re definitely not for those who like cakey brownies but there’s a good reason why this recipe keeps resurfacing. MMmmmm!
Cakey brownies? What’s a cakey brownie?
I am all about the deeply, densely, darkly fudge-y brownie! Ann Hodgman, who wrote the Beat This cook book describes her favorite brownies as “frosting you can pick up!” I heartily concur. Go, Kate Hepburn!
Jenni - I love that quote! I hadn’t heard it. Without thinking, I tacked on “with your fingers.”
Cakey brownie almost seems a contraction of terms, doesn’t it?
The Joy of Cooking (hardcover, updated 1997 edition) recommends all ingredients be first at room temperature before you start out. That’s for their Brownies Cockaigne, a concoction I love to serve. The biggest difference I see between Hepburn’s and the Joy of Cooking’s is Hepburn uses only half the flour but twice the butter. Rich!
Ian - Rich indeed. Cutting this into 16 portions doesn’t seem mean. It’s sensible. I can’t help but wonder if slender Hepburn ever really ate things like this, unless she had a metabolism like a rocket.
Brownies Cockaigne? How precious.
And you have all that wonderfu European chocolate at your fingertips. Mmmmmm!
yum AGAIN … and you cite two of my favourites, Lean and Hepburn …
Contemporary Kate Winslett has an an ‘aura’ of that Grand Dame ‘Kate’ as does Ann Hathaway have a whiff of Audrey Hepburn about her …
Tis interesting how the spread continues to exist within the feminine ‘ideal’ – from ‘tom boyish’ to ‘ultra feminine’ – no?
Wasn’t David Lean wonderful? Brief Encounter is one of my favorite movies and I think it was the reason I got on a rent-a-Lean kick and discovered Summertime.
Good point about the feminine ideal, although I don’t think our culture will ever move away from “thinner is better.” Maybe one reason Audrey – the other Hepubrn – endures as an icon is the word gamine that’s always associated with her. Totally non-threatening. (And she was either anorexic or bulimic, I forget which, but there’s that thin thing again.)