Recipe ~ Italian Espresso Chocolate Brownies

I’ve been thinking of making these brownies ever since I saw them on a fellow foodie’s blog, Cinnamon Spice & Everything Nice.

The recipe was originally created by Tyler Florence (isn’t he handsome?) for Amaretto chocolate brownies but with no Amaretto around, she used strong espresso coffee. I liked that idea too and introduce you to her adaptation of the original recipe with the new one.

 
Here’s a great recipe for Italian espresso chocolate brownies.

Melt the chocolate and butter using a double boiler. I have a makeshift one with a pan over pan method. I recently discovered that my mini crockpot works well for melting chocolate but with the two sticks of butter and the chocolate, it would have been too small to use.

In a separate large bowl, combine the sugar, eggs and espresso coffee. Because we have an espresso machine, I used 2 tablespoons of an espresso shot that you see in the smaller bowl. You could probably use your regular coffee if you don’t use instant but make the strongest and bold coffee that you can for this. Whisk them all together.

In another bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Now you should have three bowls plus your walnuts. You are going to mix everything in steps into your bowl that started with eggs so make sure this is your largest bowl to handle all the ingredients. Add chocolate mixture to your large bowl of egg mixture and whisk to combine. Then gradually add in the flour mixture adding it in stages. Lastly, add in the walnuts and combine using a wooden spoon.

Once it is well mixed, it’s ready for your pan. My pans are larger and I didn’t have a 9″x9″ pan. I had a corning dish that eyeing it thought it was the same size. NOT! I highly recommend sticking to a 9×9 square pan and here’s why.

After the 45 minutes, I checked the brownies and they were still uncooked in the middle. Later when I DID measure the pan, it was 8″x8″ and with rounded corners was much smaller than it should have been for this recipe. I had to keep the brownies in longer and they turned out much higher. It would have been better to keep them denser with a larger pan. Lesson learned!

Given how fast these chocolate brownies disappeared, there didn’t appear to be a problem with their taste. They were very chocolaty but you really didn’t taste the espresso. I imagine they have a richer chocolate taste with the addition of the coffee. The walnuts were great with their added crunch combined with the moist rich chocolate. It’s hard to eat just one square!

I love brownies with walnuts but do prefer them denser and more chewy like Cinnamon Spice and Everything Nice’s turned out. She also added cocoa whipped cream to add to their decadence which is a nice touch. I’m going out to buy a 9×9 pan so look out for more decadent brownie recipes in future. Anyone have a special brownie recipe that they recommend?

Here’s the full recipe:
Italian Espresso Chocolate Brownies

2 sticks unsalted butter, plus more for pan
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate chips
1 and 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
Pinch salt
4 large eggs
2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon Instant Italian Espresso dissolved in 2 tablespoons boiling water or 2 tablespoons Amaretto (or 2 tablespoons of a strong espresso shot)
1 and 1/2 cups chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Line a 9 by 9 square baking pan with parchment paper, making sure paper hangs over the edges. Grease paper with butter so the brownies don’t stick. Melt butter and chocolate over a double-boiler and stir gently until smooth and shiny. Remove from the heat and cool slightly.

Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt into a mixing bowl and set aside. Whisk together eggs, sugar and Espresso in a mixing bowl until combined. Pour in chocolate mixture and continue to whisk until combined. Gradually add flour mixture, then add walnuts and incorporate with a wooden spoon.

Transfer batter to baking pan and bake for 40 to 45 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean when inserted into the middle of the pan. When done, invert onto a cutting board, remove paper and cut into squares.

Tagged as: baking, brownies, chocolate, chocolate recipe, dessert, nuts