Triple Chocolate Mocha Brownie – Nestle Toll House Recipe

1. Preheat the oven to 350 and place your oven rack on the center rack. Spray a 9×9 baking pan with non-stick spray and use the kind that is meant for baking. Spray it VERY well! Place a sheet of aluminum foil going one direction across the bottom fo the pan and secure on the sides of the baking dish. Place another sheet of aluminum foil going the other direction across the bottom of the pan. Spray the top side of the foil with the same baking spray, very well.
2. In a medium sized microwave safe bowl (I use a large glass cereal bowl) place the chocolates, butter and cocoa powder and microwave on high for 1 minute. Allow to rest in the microwave while you do the other steps.
3. Using a whisk, in a large bowl, whisk the eggs, espresso powder, sugar, vanilla and salt together.
4. Using a wooden spoon, mix the flour in with the eggs mixture. This takes some stirring – keep stirring until it is well mixed. Then, remove the chocolate mixture from the microwave and stir it together like crazy until it is smooth and add by small amounts (about ½ cup at a time) to the egg mixture, stir well. Keep adding the chocolate mix until all mixed in – make sure to use a rubber spatula to get all of the chocolate from the small bowl!! Once well mixed, pour into the prepared 9×9 pan and again, use the rubber spatula to make sure it all goes in!
5. Place on the middle rack of the oven and set timer for 25 minutes. The center will puff slightly and the sides will become crusty. Remove as soon as a toothpick inserted comes out mostly smooth. In my oven, this is exactly 25 minutes. Yours might differ slightly. If yours doesn’t come out clean at 25 minutes, then continue baking and recheck every 2-3 minutes.
6. Cool on the counter/wire rack for as long as you can stand it before you HAVE to eat the brownies. At least 30 minutes would be good – but go with what you have to. Cover well with plastic wrap to save. Serve with ice cream and/or cold milk.

Notes

• It seems like overkill to spray the pan and then spray the foil, but these brownies can be very sticky and this is just extra precaution.
• The reason for putting the foil in the baking dish as explained is because this makes handy handles for lifting the brownies out of the pan.
• If you use a glass bowl to melt the chocolates in, the glass bowl will help hold heat after microwaving and help to melt the chocolates.  I’ve found that a plastic bowl does less well.  If you find that the chocolates are not melted enough by the time you are ready to add them, microwave for additional 30 second increments until melted and easy to mix and stir through.  The point is that you want them silky smooth but not HOT when you mix them in the batter.
• If you do not have espresso powder, just leave it out.  The brownies will still be good.
• Bake ONLY until a toothpick comes out clean and not ONE second longer.  This makes the perfect center to your brownies.
• For clean slicing, wait until the brownies are cooled completely to room temp (or you can even put them in the fridge and cool them more).  Heat the blade of a knife under hot water, dry it, then slice.  This makes for a much cleaner slice.