Mexican Chocolate Brownies

The we-move-in-less-than-2-months-so-we-better-start-eating-from-the-cuboards time crunch has begun! So far, we've successfully eaten through most of the canned goods (by canned goods, I mostly mean refried black beans and tomatoes). Still, there are random things that need eating like oats, dates, millet, de puy lentils, sunflower seeds, pine nuts, and a ton of flour (whole wheat, whole wheat pastry, all-purpose, buckwheat, rye, potato, tapioca, etc.). Also, we have at least 15 bags of chills from the Chili Cook-Off that we hosted over Easter weekend in 2013. If you can think of a dried chile pepper, we probably have it! Ancho, cayenne, chipotle, cobanero, guajillo, Japonese, morita, mulato, New Mexico, pasilla, pequin…

The other thing we bought for the chili cook off was a bright yellow and red box of Mexican chocolate for C's chili. I think I used it for something after the chili cook off, but I don't remember exactly what I made. It might have been ice cream. Whatever it was, it didn't turn out, so the box has been sitting in the cupboard taunting me since. I haven't known what to do with the rest of it. The obvious solution would be to make hot chocolate. However, it's currently June in Texas and there is no chance we'll have a day below 80ºF in the next two months. Iced Mexican hot chocolate? I don't know about that.

On Sunday, while C was on call in the hospital, I decided to bake him Mexican chocolate brownies. He says he "hates" chocolate. I find this suspicious because he loves brownies and recently came home with a pint of Steve's Mexican Chili Chocolate Ice Cream "for me," yet only gave me a few bites. Adding to my suspicions, the chocolate ice cream appeared just a day after I made cobanero chili chocolate dairy-free "oat cream." I believe that when he says "I hate chocolate" he really means "I hate chocolate cake." His hatred of cake has somehow tainted his view of chocolate.

Anyway,  last time I made brownies, he gave me a little grief. I told him that I had a brownie recipe that I was excited to try and he told me not to bother, that he had gotten the best brownie recipe from his friend Nick. He asked me how many eggs my recipe called for and told me that since it called for fewer eggs than his recipe, my brownies wouldn't be as good. We decided to have a brownie bake-off. When he pulled up the recipe from his friend Nick, he told me it was the Baked brownie recipe, the exact same recipe I was planning to make. (Clearly he didn't remember how many eggs Nick's recipe called for!)

Objective
Make the Baked brownie recipe with part dark chocolate and part Mexican chocolate.

Materials
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
pinch ground cinnamon
pinch ground hot chile pepper (ex. cayenne, cobanero, or chipotle)
4.5 ounces dark chocolate
1 ounce Mexican chocolate, grated (ex. Ibarra or Abuelita)
1/2 cup butter, cubed
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
2 1/2 eggs (crack three, whisk together and remove 1 tablespoon)
1 teaspoon vanilla
sliced almonds, for topping (optional)
flaked sea salt, for topping (optional)

Methods
1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Grease an 8x8 inch square pan and set aside.
2. Sift together the flour, salt, cocoa powder, cinnamon and chile powder. Set aside.
3. Set up a double boiler (bring about an inch of water to boil in the bottom of a saucepan and set a tight-fitting glass or metal bowl over the water but not touching). Melt the dark chocolate, Mexican chocolate and butter.
4. Whisk in the sugar and brown sugar. Add half of the eggs, whisk, then whisk in the rest. Stir in the vanilla. Do not over mix (unless you like cake-like brownies; if that's the case, whisk away).
5. Sprinkle the sifted flour mixture over the top of the batter. Fold in the flour until just combined. The mixture will be a bit lumpy from the eggs but not from clumps of flour.
6. Pour the batter into the prepared baking pan. If desired, sprinkle with sliced almonds and sea salt. Bake 20-30 minutes (mine took 22 minutes), rotating the pan after 15 minutes of baking. The brownies are done when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with a few crumbs on it (so that it still has moisture but isn't still gooey batter).

Results
Yum! Moist, creamy, and a little spicy. A nice crunch (and flavor) from the almonds.

Discussion
When I first met C, he was disappointed to learn that I liked pickles. He joked that his dream girl was one who hated pickles so that he'd always get to eat two. While we agree on pickles, we disagree on brownies. He's a crust guy, I'm a gooey-center girl. Thankfully we're both in the fudgey not cakey camp, so our brownie sharing partnership is nearly perfect. The only problem is that C is a purist and I like a little crunch now and again (like nuts or chocolate chips or candy canes). Even without that crunch, I'll happily leave him the crusts and dive right into the center.

To give C credit, the Baked brownie recipe makes good brownies. You do have to be mindful of your stirring or you can easily ruin a masterpiece. My only complaint about the brownies is that they are thin. Why not double the recipe for a nice, thick chuck of chocolate gooey goodness? It's possible that it would take too long for the heat to get to the center and leave you with burnt edges and gooey, uncooked, eggy centers. Once I have the heart to try wasting that much chocolate (if it doesn't turn out), I'll let you know and report back with the results!