Mexican Hot Chocolate Brownies

in Brownies, Chocolate, Cinco de Mayo, Mexican & TexMex

Mexican Hot Chocolate Brownies

What’s better than a warm, fudgey brownie? A warm fudgey brownie with a kick, covered in ganache.

I’m not usually about messin’ around with brownies. Hold the nuts. Hold the fuss. But that doesn’t mean you can’t make perfect even better 🙂

I took our favorite basic brownie recipe and added a hefty dose of ground red pepper. And then I topped it with ganache. And after everything was cooled and set, I cut them into squares, and served them up to the girls in my Bunco group.

I sometimes forget that not everyone likes to walk around with smoke coming out of their ears like I do… I thought they had a really nice kick but they might have been a tad too spicy for general public consumption. Depending on your tolerance for “kick,” consider reducing the red pepper to 1/2 teaspoon.

Mexican Hot Chocolate Brownies

A classic, fudgey brownie infused with cayenne pepper and topped with ganache.

Ingredients

  • For the brownies
  • 1 1/4 cup cake flour
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 3/4 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 - 3/4 tsp ground cayenne
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 6 oz unsweetened chocolate
  • 12 Tbsp butter, cubed
  • 2 1/4 cups sugar
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 Tbsp vanilla
  • For the ganache
  • 6 oz semisweet chocolate
  • 1/3 cup whole milk

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 325. Grease the bottom and sides of a 13x9 pan.
  2. Whisk cake flour, salt, baking powder, cayenne, and cinnamon in a medium bowl. Set aside.
  3. Place chocolate and butter in a bowl. Microwave for 1 minute and in 30 second increments, stirring in between until chocolate has completely melted. Pour into the bowl of your stand mixer. Add sugar and mix on med-high until combined. Turn mixer to low and add 1 egg at a time and mix completely. Add vanilla.
  4. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for ~30 minutes, until a skewer inserted in the center comes out with a few moist crumbs attached. Let cool ~15 minutes.
  5. Heat semisweet chocolate and milk in the microwave for 30 seconds and then in 15 second increments, stirring in between until chocolate has completely melted. Pour over brownies. Let cool completely before cutting.

Notes

Yields: 20-24 servings

Adapted from Cook's Illustrated Classic Brownies

Estimated time: 1 hour

16 comments… add one
  • These look wonderful!

  • These look terrific for a change of pace!

  • I’m always surprised when chocolate and chili actually WORK, but it really does! These look great!

  • These look amazing! Can’t wait to try!!

  • Laura

    That sounds outstanding! I love seeing a classic food given a little twist 🙂

  • Haha it’s usually not until I decide to make a dish for my father who HATES spicy food, that I realize just how spicy I like things. I’ll take the brownies with the full amount of cayenne, please!

  • What a genius idea, I love anything spicy, especially combined with chocolate.

  • These brownies look amazing! Love that they’re spicy too. Yum!

  • I’d probably have to make half the batter with a big kick for the hubs, then less kick for me! 🙂

  • Yummy!! I see you’re prepping for the brownie torte 🙂

  • These brownies are gorgeous. I always love a bit of spice with my chocolate, and I bet the ganache makes them even more incredible!

  • Anne

    Free State used to have the Mexican Chocolate Torte. It had ancho chiles for spice, and it had pumpkin seeds. Mostly chocolate though. They were good.

  • Michael

    Who doesn’t like PEPPER-mint? Makes sense that these should work.

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