Espresso Kahlua Brownies

I just put a batch of these in the oven, so I figured I'd share the recipe. I found it while browsing on Epicurious quite a while ago, and it's become my go-to brownie recipe. I know I've made these for the ToV setup crew at least once or twice! And I think I brought them for the Prophecy event that had a bake sale. If you don't like Kahlua or don't like coffee with your chocolate, you probably won't like these, but otherwise, they're generally a hit.

1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
2 large eggs
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 tablespoons instant espresso powder
2 tablespoons Kahlua or other coffee-flavored liqueur
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
25 espresso coffee beans (I don't usually bother with these)

Preheat oven to 350F. Butter and flour a 9-inch square baking pan, knocking out excess flour.

In a small heavy saucepan melt butter and chocolate over low heat, stirring, until smooth. Cool chocolate mixture to lukewarm.

In a large bowl with an electric mixer beat together eggs, sugar, vanilla, espresso powder, and Kahlua until mixture is thickened and pale. Beat in chocolate mixture. Into a bowl sift together flour, baking powder, and salt and beat into batter just until blended well.

Spread batter evenly in pan and arrange coffee beans in 5 rows of 5 beans each. Bake brownies in middle of oven 30 to 35 minutes, or until a tester comes out with crumbs adhering to it. Cool brownies in pan on a rack before cutting into 25 squares.


Some notes: I often multiply the recipe by 1 1/2 to fill a regular 9x13 pan. Tonight I had no unsweetened chocolate, so I substituted 3 tablespoons of cocoa + 1 tablespoon of shortening for each ounce of chocolate; instead of melting the butter and chocolate, I just softened the butter and creamed it and the shortening in with the eggs, sugar, etc. and added the cocoa with the flour.