
Jamaican Coffee Brownie with Baileys Ganache
You may have reached for brownies across café counters or picked them up at your local store. These bite-sized bits of decadence owe their existence to Bertha Palmer, an America business-woman, socialite and philanthropist. The story goes that brownies were created for Palmer after she requested a dessert – smaller than a piece of cake – for ladies attending the Chicago 1893 World Fair. These first brownies featured an apricot glaze and walnuts!
But the standard store brownies seldom come close to a batch baked fresh at home. To help you understand what we mean, we have in this recipe, a marriage of chocolate and Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee, designed to hit all the right notes on the taste-bud scale, and easy to make!
The famous coffee flavors both the brownies and their ganache topping, and you can give it a bit of Kahlua or Baileys Irish Cream essence by adding a teaspoon of the desired liqueur to the ganache. Ideally any coffee freshly ground will work for this recipe but the Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee is prized for its bold, clean flavor. However, good espresso beans and strong brewed espresso works well, too.
This recipe makes 15 brownies
Ingredients:
- Oil to grease the baking tray
- Sugar 360 gms
- Unsalted Butter 220 grams
- Unsweetened Cocoa Powder 90 grams
- Finely ground (Blue Mountain ) Coffee Beans 20 grams
- Salt 4 grams
- Eggs 3 large
- Vanilla Extract 15 grams
- All Purpose flour 160 grams
- Pecan Nuts 95 grams
- Bitter Sweet Chocolate Chips 180 grams
- Freshly brewed coffee 6 tablespoons
Method:
- Combine sugar, butter, and cocoa, ground coffee, and salt in large metal bowl.
- Place bowl over saucepan of simmering water and whisk until butter melts and ingredients are blended (texture will be grainy).
- Remove bowl from over water; cool mixture to lukewarm if necessary (to help the cooling process keep whisking), then whisk in eggs and vanilla. Sift flour over and fold in.
- Mix in pecans.
- Spread batter in prepared pan. Bake brownies until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 25 minutes.
- Cool brownies in the pan.
- Place chocolate chips in small bowl.
- Bring brewed coffee to simmer in small saucepan; pour over chips and stir until melted and smooth.
- Optionally add the Kahlua or Baileys, let ganache stand until cool and beginning to thicken, about 1 hour; spread evenly over brownies. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover; let stand at room temperature.) Cut brownies into 15 squares.