Recipe Snapshot: Dark Chocolate Mocha Brownies

In my house growing up, I don't remember my mom ever baking brownies.  My mom was far more likely to bake some fancy exotic sounding cookie.  Or homemade apple fritters.  Or a triple chocolate cheesecake.  So until recently, I didn't know one could bake brownies from scratch--I'd only ever made them from a boxed mix. Sometime last year I volunteered to make brownies for a baby shower at work--and decided to look for a recipe online.  I was so pleasantly surprised after I tried them--while from scratch brownies take more prep work than boxed brownies, they bake in less time.  And these were delicious.  I tweaked the recipe to suit my tastes, and I've been making them this way ever since, to delicious and well-received results.

My husband's birthday is tomorrow, so we celebrated this weekend.  We went to dinner with friends on Saturday, and my husband asked to have brownies and games at home after.  Blessedly, there are only a few leftover, as we don't really need the temptation!  The secret to these (other than the butter) is the little bit of instant coffee.  If you add just a little, the brownies don't taste like coffee, just really chocolatey.  But my husband likes coffee and chocolate together, so I added a little more than normal.  Result: yum!

Recipe below the cut!

Dark Chocolate Mocha Brownies, recipe by Julie

Time: about 45-50 minutes. Makes 24 small brownies (recipe can be halved)

Ingredients

• 1 cup Unsalted Butter
• 2 cups White Sugar
• 4 whole Eggs
• 2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
• ⅔ cups Hershey's Special Dark (TM) Cocoa Powder
• 2 Tablespoons Instant Coffee Granules, Or To Taste
• 1 cup All-purpose Flour
• ½ teaspoons Salt
• ½ teaspoons Baking Powder

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 9×13 inch pan. (I use Pam spray for baking, which has flour in it already.)
2. In a large glass mixing bowl, melt butter in the microwave. About 90 seconds should do it—keep an eye on it. (If you do not have a glass mixing bowl, you can melt the butter separately in a microwave-safe bowl and then transfer to a large mixing bowl to mix with the other ingredients.)
3. Stir sugar, eggs, and vanilla into the melted butter.
4. Gently stir in cocoa, instant coffee (to taste—2 tablespoons will give a richer coffee flavor), flour, salt, and baking powder. Stir until just blended—do not overmix.
5. Spread batter into the prepared pan. Bake in the preheated oven for 28 to 30 minutes.