Super chocolaty, chewy, and fudgy poppy seed brownies, Austrian-style. These brownies contain ground poppy seeds, which make them moist, rich, and simply delicious!
Austrians love poppy seeds. At least the majority does. So it doesn’t come as a surprise that there are a lot of dishes – sweet and savory – based on poppy seeds. That’s why I call them Austrian-style brownies :)
Austrian poppy seed recipes
Like in this recipe, most of the time poppy seeds are ground before their use, like in this flourless poppy seed cake (a must try!), poppy seed rolls or sweet dumplings topped with poppy seeds. But even whole poppy seeds, especially when topping breads and baked goods, are popular in Austrian cooking.
Find more information about poppy seeds, where to buy them and a tutorial on how to grind poppy seeds at home, in this blog post.
Step-by-step recipe poppy seed brownies
Melt the butter – either in a big glass bowl in the microwave (for the one-bowl approach) or in a small saucepan. Add chocolate chips or chopped chocolate and let the chocolate sit in the hot butter for a few minutes to melt. Stir.
Add eggs, vanilla, and salt to the warm (not hot!) chocolate. Ideally, the melted chocolate should be still warm since it will firm up when cooling, making it hard to spread the batter in the baking pan later.
Stir in sugar, then ground poppy seeds.
Add flour and stir until combined.
Add the batter to the prepared baking pan and spread it evenly using a spatula. The batter is rather firm, that’s ok.
Bake in the preheated oven at 350 °F (175 °C) for about 25-30 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Remove pan from the oven and let cool.
Enjoy them either plain, dusted with powdered sugar, or top with a chocolate ganache, like I did here.
Let ganache set, cut brownies into 16 small squares and serve. Store in an airtight container for a few days or up to one week in the refrigerator. Bring to room temperature before eating. They also freeze well!
If you love brownies and chocolate like I do, you should try my go-to recipe for chewy and fudgy brownies, these chocolate crinkle cookies, my gluten-free chocolate poppy seed cake, or this flourless Italian torta caprese. In summer, this quick chocolate zucchini cake is a favorite!
Super chocolaty, moist, chewy and fudgy poppy seed brownies. Enjoy them plain, with a light dusting of powdered sugar, or add a thin layer of chocolate ganache on top. All versions are delicious!
Recipe: Ursula | lilvienna.com
Ingredients
- 1 stick (114 g) unsalted butter
- 1 cup + 3 tablespoons (200 g) semi-sweet chocolate chips (or baking chocolate with about 55% cocoa, chopped)
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (220 g) sugar
- 3/4 cup (70 g) ground poppy seeds, see note
- Shy 1/2 cup (50 g) all-purpose flour
- 1.5 tablespoons (20 g) unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup (80 g) milk chocolate chips or chopped chocolate from a block (semi-sweet chocolate also tastes great)
- 2 tablespoons mascarpone cheese (you can substitute crème fraiche or liquid/unbeaten heavy cream)
Instructions
- Line an 8-inch square pan (20x20 cm) with parchment paper.
- If using a block of chocolate, finely chop it.
- Melt the butter – either in a big glass bowl in the microwave (for the one-bowl approach) or in a small saucepan. When the butter is melted and hot, remove it from the heat and add chocolate chips or chopped chocolate. Briefly stir, then let the chocolate sit in the hot butter for a few minutes to melt. Stir again. If there still are some chocolate chunks, briefly reheat in the microwave or on the stove, then stir until smooth. Preheat oven to 350 °F (175 °C) using top and bottom heat.
- Add eggs, vanilla, and salt to the warm (not hot!) chocolate. Ideally, the melted chocolate should be still warm since it will firm up when cooling, making it hard to spread the batter in the baking pan later.
- Stir in sugar, then ground poppy seeds. Add flour and stir until combined.
- Add the batter to the prepared baking pan and spread it evenly using a spatula. The batter is rather firm, that’s ok.
- Bake in the preheated oven at 350 °F (175 °C) for about 25-30 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Remove pan from the oven and let cool. Enjoy them either plain, dusted with powdered sugar, or top with a chocolate ganache, recipe follows. Cut into 16 small squares and serve.
- Storage: Store in an airtight container for a few days or up to one week in the refrigerator. Bring to room temperature before eating. They also freeze well!
- Heat butter in a small saucepan over medium heat until it is melted and hot.
- Reduce heat to low, add chocolate, and stir to gently soften the chocolate. The chocolate should slowly melt but shouldn’t get too hot. Remove the saucepan from the heat if necessary.
- When the chocolate has melted, remove saucepan from the heat and immediately stir in mascarpone cheese.
- Pour ganache over the brownies. The ganache will be thin and pourable when hot and thickens while cooling. It will set within about 1/2 hour. Refrigerating the pan speeds things up.
Notes
Grinding poppy seeds:
If you can’t get your hands on readily ground poppy seeds, use whole ones and grind them. Either use a small electric grinder (coffee or spice grinder) and grind them in batches, or use a powerful food processor/blender. Grind the seeds until they start to break up, turn darker and resemble wet soil or wet sand. You’ll need 70 g (about 1/2 cup) of whole poppy seeds. After grinding, they will fill about 3/4 cups. It’s best to weigh them since ground poppy seeds highly vary in volume depending on the kitchen tool you use for grinding them and how you pack the measuring cup. More infos here.
Poppy seed storage: Poppy seeds have a high oil content and go rancid quickly. Therefore, it’s best to purchase poppy seeds from a place with high turnover and store them in the fridge or freezer.
* Chocolate ganache: The amount given will be enough to cover the brownies with a thin and subtle layer of ganache, just like in the pictures above. If you love chocolate ganache, double the amount and give it a few more minutes to fully set.
Love these poppy seed brownies!!! Delish!
Hi Mara,
So happy that you like these brownies. I love them too!! Ursula