Mostly you’ll find walnuts in brownies but I think Almond Brownies are even better. Brownies can be made with gluten-free flour or plain if you don’t need a gluten-free version.
Updated 2026 · Now with printable recipe · Originally commissioned by Omsco (organic milk board) as a snack to give Santa alongside the traditional glass of milk.
I originally made these almond brownies for a video shot in my kitchen for the organic milk board, it was online for a while but no longer there so now I’m publishing the recipe and step by step photos here.
The idea was to make a snack for Santa at Christmas, originally the brownies were dusted with a star-shaped sprinkling of icing sugar through a stencil. I’d not bother with that in future and you can eat almond brownies at any time of year: Brownies are for life, not just for Christmas.
I’d also been sent some Green & Blacks chocolate around the same time hence the espresso addition, but this is worth doing even if you don’t have any espresso flavoured chocolate, as some espresso powder brings an upbeat spark to the dark chocolate.
The recipe wasn’t sponsored by Green & Blacks but it was what I used at the time. More recently I’d more likely use a supermarket branded cooking chocolate for this kind of recipe.
I wrote at the time:
Well it’s a showbiz cliche never to work with animals or children but when it’s your own child you can’t really say no can you?
The Organic Milk people asked me to make them a snack suitable to leave out for Santa with a glass of milk and being a brownie fiend brownies were my choice. Can you believe that although I’d featured blondies a few times, I’d never blogged any brownies on here before?
Below I have now added the step by step pictures – previously unseen.
In a medium sized saucepan on a medium to low heat, melt the butter and chocolate. Stir until nearly melted then turn off the heat and leave to cool.
In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs into the caster sugar. Add the almond extract.
In a food processor, quickly blitz the almonds into large chunks.
Stir the nuts into the slightly cooled molten chocolate and butter mixture.
Then stir in the flour, nuts, spices and espresso powder.
Stir until you can’t see blobs of flour.
Meanwhile line a square baking tin and pour in the batter.
Bake in the middle of the oven for 25-30 minutes – leave them slightly longer if you don’t like your brownies too damp but bear in mind there is a fine line between fudgy brownies and drier ones. A cocktail stick should come out cleanly when they are done.
Allow the brownies to cool in the tin for at least 10 minutes then transfer the cooked block to a wire cooling rack to cool completely. Allow at least 1 hour to cool before cutting into squares.
Almond Brownies
Equipment
- 8 inch square baking tin
- baking parchment paper
Ingredients
- 250 g butter
- 250 g chocolate dark, broken into squares
- 4 large eggs
- 2 tsp almond extract
- 325 g caster sugar
- 150 g plain flour I used gluten free but normal plain flour is fine too
- 100 g almonds whole
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground cardamom
- 1 tsp espresso powder optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180c (Gas 4).
- In a medium sized saucepan on a medium to low heat, melt the butter and chocolate. Stir until nearly melted then turn off the heat and leave to cool.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs into the caster sugar. Add the almond extract.
- In a food processor, quickly blitz the almonds into large chunks.
- Stir in the slightly cooled molten chocolate and butter mixture and then stir in the flour, nuts, spices and espresso powder (if using – see note below) until all the flour is combined.
- Lightly grease the corners of the baking tin and line the base and sides with parchment paper.
- Pour in the warm brownie batter.
- Bake in the middle of the oven for 25-30 minutes – leave them slightly longer if you don’t like your brownies too damp but bear in mind there is a fine line between fudgy brownies and drier ones. A cocktail stick should come out cleanly when they are done.
- Allow the brownies to cool in the tin for at least 10 minutes then transfer the cooked block to a wire cooling rack to cool completely. Allow at least 1 hour to cool before cutting into squares.
Notes
A final memory what happened whilst baking…
This is what Ted said when we were dusting them with icing sugar:
Me (enthusiastically): Mmmmmm. I think Father Christmas will like these brownies.
Ted (matter of fact): He might throw them away.
Ted was not a massive fan of my nutty almond brownies but that’s ok, they were aimed at grown ups after all. You don’t want a Santa snack that the children gobble up before he comes do you?
Even so, I’m not sure I dare make these again on the 24th. If Santa comes by our house with a plateful of these around he may not leave and I wouldn’t like to be held responsible.
What would you leave out for Santa?
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