Stuart and I were wandering through the Northside Produce Market last weekend making our mandatory stop at Black Star Pastry. Christopher Thé’s well known Sydney patisserie serves up not only the most photographed cake in the world, it’s also a mighty fine bakery. Black Star is so popular and have such loyal customers, I’m surprised that they still do the local markets. Every month I hold my breath hoping that they will still have their stall in the back corner of the market. Happy that they still come over this side of the Sydney Harbour bridge, but surprised none the less.

The most photographed cake in the world is not Migraine-friendly but my macadamia nut brownies are.

Stuart always gets a croissant from them. They are the only croissants that don’t give him a migraine, so it’s his fortnightly indulgence. If you want to know more about why croissants can give you a migraine I’ve written about that here. Black Star always has a very impressive display of the handful of goods they are offering. Last week they had a massive tower of chocolate macadamia nut brownies. I caught him drooling at them and I must say they were impressive. These weren’t your ordinary thin brownies, they were cubes of macadamia nuts held together with luscious, chocolate brownie. The brownies were double layer thick to support the weight and size of the whole macadamia nuts, and yet somehow still a bit gooey. Christopher had worked his magic again, but this time with brownies.

I soothed my besotted husband with a promise to make some macadamia brownies for him. He knows that the additives in chocolate are what cause migraines and that I have a supply of Migraine-friendly pure cocoa and chocolate on hand, plus a reliably good brownie recipe. I knew that unlike walnuts, pistachios and peanuts, which can all trigger migraines owing to naturally high levels of citrulline, macadamia nuts are Migraine-friendly.

Gooey, chocolatey macadamia nut brownies are a Migraine-friendly treat.

Stuart left Black Star with his croissant in hand and a promise.

I on the other hand was facing a challenge.

I perused the Internet to discover that macadamia nut brownies were basically a thick brownie. That left me with two choices, either double the recipe or a smaller pan. I went for the smaller pan and it turned out to be as easy as 1, 2, 3…

1. I picked up some macadamia nut pieces so there was no chopping, adding ⅔ a cup to my brownie recipe which you can find here.
2. Then I baked it not in a 20 cm square brownie pan, but a loaf pan that I normally use for banana bread (20 x 10 x 6 cm) for 30-35 minutes until they looked set and a skewer came out with moist crumbs.
3. I allowed them to cool in the pan and then cut into 8 cubes. We thought they actually tasted better the next day after the moisture had equilibrated throughout the chocolate-nut cube.

In the end there was one happy hubby and an instant Migraine-friendly Valentine’s Day treat to share with you. Enjoy my friends.

Informed by science, cooked by you.