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.

Print

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