Espresso Brownies

Last holiday season, i asked my dad for a cooking magazine subscription as a Chanukkah gift. I was expecting Cook's Illustrated ( a staple in his household), but received instead Saveur. I wasn't crazy about the mag at first - lost of words, not as many recipes or techniques - but over the last 8 months I have really fallen in love with the publication. The articles, which tend to focus on a specific ingredient such as butter or ricotta, are well written and inspiring. The recipes are often complicated but always look good. So far I've been inspired to venture out into the worlds of butters I never knew about, (love Kerrygold salted, definitely like Plugra for buttercream frostings), and have flagged way more recipes than I've been able to try.

The most recent spread has a special section on Brownies. Now, I love and am deeply loyal to Hershey's Best Brownies recipe. They aren't really caky or fudgy but buttery, chocolatey, and melt in your mouth flaky in a way brownies usually aren't. But, inspired by the article and 3 recipes included, I've decided to try them all. The major tip I learned from the article is the difference between using solid baking (high quality of course) chocolate versus chocolate powder: because baking/melting chocolate is combined with fats, it will give a smooth taste to baked goods but the level and intensity of chocolate is not adjustable. Cocoa powder, in which the fats and have been removed, will give a deeper, darker cocoa taste because you can substitute some of your flour with cocoa powder as a way to up the chocolate intensity. If you are a real chocoholic like myself and love the bitter taste of dark chocolate, I highly recommend Hershey's Special Dark cocoa powder. It's a blend of Dutch and regular processed powders and I like it better then Schraffen-Berger and many of the other really expensive kinds out there. Penzy's Dutch processed is very tasty, but much lighter in flavor and better for a "milk chocolate" rather than a dark chocolate taste. Ghiradelli is also good, but in my opinion over-rated and over priced for what it is. Between regular Nestle and regular Hershey's powders, I've found the Hershey gives a better flavor, the Nestle is a bit bland and fades rather quickly.

I made this recipe with 2 adjustments: 1) brewed strong coffee from espresso roast beans rather than use instant espresso - and 2) I used melted salted butter rather than oil. B/c of the espresso beans it's a little expensive to make, but it make a very elegant brownie that was a luxurious treat while camping and would make and elegant dessert. Note: don't leave out the salt in this recipe, it's important for balancing the sweet/bitter tastes.

Krystal's Espresso Brownies from Saveur September 2008
Brownies:
1/2 c. oil (I used melted butter instead)
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup strongly brewed coffee or 1/4 hot water and 2.5 Tbl instant espresso powder
1 cup (about 4 oz) chocolate covered espresso beans
1 cup superfine sugar (regular worked just fine)
1/2 c flour
1/3 c unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder

1 8x8 pan
parchment paper

1. grease pan and line bottom with parchment paper. Grease parchment.
2. Heat oven to 325 F
3. Make coffee or dissolve instant expresso powder, let cool. Combine with melted butter (also cooled a bit) or oil, and eggs. Whisk together and set aside.
4. Coarsely chop espresso beans in a food processor.
5. Combine sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt. Whisk. Stir in wet ingredients until just combined. Stir in espresso beans.
6. Pour into pan, spread evenly, try not to eat all of the batter before cooking, and bake 45-50 min. Let cool slightly.

Frosting
1 cup superfine sugar (again, regular was just fine)
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
4 Tbl. butter
1/4 cup milk
2 tsp vanilla
1/8 tsp salt

In the last 15 minutes of baking, begin frosting.
1. in a 1 qt saucepan, melt butter, milk, vanilla, and salt. When it begins to get hot and approach boiling, stir in sugar. Continue to stir/whisk until sugar has dissolved (VERY IMPORTANT!). Sir in cocoa powder.
2. Pour over cooled brownies and let cool completely. (in the fridge works well.