May 24th, 2008

brownies! with coffee!

brownies 2

i’m proud to say that i grew up in a family where home-cooked meals and home-baked desserts were the norm. my mom seemed to have an endless supply of recipes for every occasion. so when i went to college, i found myself calling every week and asking for a new idea for dinner or dessert. rather than just emailing me recipes, my mom sends them to me the way she keeps them at home - on index cards. when the mail arrived, i came to expect a envelope thick with 5 or 6 index cards with hand-copied directions for my childhood favorites.

brownie batter

this brownie recipe straddles the line between cakey and fudgey, so you won’t have to choose. the only thing i’ve changed about my mom’s original directions is to add coffee. many desserts use freshly brewed coffee, but here’s the secret - i use instant coffee. it’s what i grew up drinking, so it’s what i have in my apartment at all times.

brownie batter 3

you’re going to want to stop yourself from adding more instant coffee after the first tablespoon. ignore your instincts and just keep adding more. the batter will smell and even taste too bitter before you bake it, but when the brownies come out of the oven, you’ll be pleasantly surprised with the depth of flavor. these won’t last long after you put them out - and they’re great warm.

brownies and milk 1

brownies 1

coffee brownies
another recipe bestowed upon me by my mom.

1 cup butter, soft
2 cups sugar
2 tsp vanilla
4 eggs
4 oz unsweetened baking chocolate, melted and cooled
1 cup flour
1/2 cup chocolate chips
2-3 Tbsp instant coffee

1. in a large bowl, blend together the butter and sugar.

2. add vanilla, eggs, melted chocolate, coffee, flour and chocolate chips.

3. pour into a greased and floured 9×13 inch pan and bake at 325 F for 35 minutes.

5. get giant glass of milk and devour brownies until food coma ensues.


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16 comments so far ↓

  1. Chuck | May 24, 2008 at 8:40 pm

    I could eat brownies everyday, just love them. The photo of the brownies climbing up the side of the glass of milk is really cute.

  2. michelle @ TNS | May 25, 2008 at 12:04 am

    the only thing better than a brownie is a coffee-flavored brownie.

  3. Tarah | May 25, 2008 at 4:40 pm

    What better than a coffee brownie??

  4. Patricia Scarpin | May 26, 2008 at 2:43 pm

    YUM!

  5. Shawn | May 26, 2008 at 11:25 pm

    I make espresso brownies almost daily in your coffee shop. I can assure you that you can bring down the toughest female to her knees with coffee brownies. They flood in at certain times of the month. They curse me but there’d better be brownies in the display case.

  6. trsh | May 27, 2008 at 12:43 am

    Well, i saw these, loved the idea, and whipped up a batch. I don’t know if i did something wrong, but they are a very light brown, kindof grey, not the dark chocolate deliciousness pictured above. Maybe i did something wrong; i melted the chocolate in the microwave (shorts bursts till almost melted, stirred to melt; waited to cool) - beat the butter and sugar together, added the eggs and vanilla and did a quick whip together, added the chocolate and inst. coffee, and stirred till the chocolate was mixed in, then added flour and chocolate chips. the batter tasted good, just didn’t look right. Is the recipe missing something, did i mix the ingredients together wrong… any ideas what may have happened? They are still cooking right now so i’m not sure what the final outcome will be, but right now… still an ashy light brown.

  7. petebakes | May 27, 2008 at 12:58 am

    @trsh - i wonder if it could have anything to do with the type of baking chocolate you used? in the end, it comes down to taste, so i as long as they make you faint with deliciousness, it’s all good. let me know how they turn out!

  8. trsh | May 31, 2008 at 3:42 pm

    Well, in the end they turned out OK, just a little light colored on top. On a personal note, the next day i had food poisoning… not sure if it was cuz of brownie batter licking, or something else i ate… thanks for the recipe anyway!

  9. Gareth | Jun 1, 2008 at 2:50 pm

    The brownies look really good…..but I have a question.
    I assume that in the States you buy butter, flour and sugar by weight, as we do in the UK. So why, when composing a recipe, is it necessary to convert into the confusing and internationally variable ‘cups’? WTF is a cup of butter?

  10. petebakes | Jun 2, 2008 at 9:58 am

    @ gareth - i’m no food anthropologist, so i’m not sure why the US measures ingredients differently than the rest of the world, but here we usually buy butter in sticks. each stick is a quarter pound and also equal to half a cup. so one cup of butter is a half pound. hope this helps!

  11. Online Advertising | Jul 3, 2008 at 10:18 am

    Mmmm! sounds perfect

  12. wonderment » Blog Archive » In which I have way too many recipes for brownies | Sep 6, 2008 at 5:07 pm

    [...] Coffee Brownies [...]

  13. Shannalee | Sep 13, 2008 at 3:18 am

    Your mom sounds adorable–she really mailed you 3 X 5 cards with recipes on them? Too cute.

    These brownies look great… so why is using instant coffee better? If you use regular, would the flavor be very different?

  14. Another Chuck | Nov 15, 2008 at 1:36 pm

    Do you have a recipe for magic brownies?

  15. Amber | Nov 29, 2008 at 12:26 am

    I made these brownies yesterday, and even though I failed, they tasted good. I managed to set my oventimer wrong (new oven, mind you), so I got it out early. Whoops! But thanks for the recipe!

  16. what are some good coffee brownie recipes where you can REALLY taste the coffee part? | Coffee | Dec 13, 2008 at 4:36 am

    [...] http://www.peterandrewryan.com/baking/2008/05/brownies-with-coffee/ [...]

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