Mocha Orange Brownies
You may be thinking the combination of orange, coffee, and chocolate is a bit strange, but I assure you it is delicious! If you’re using a glass baking dish, the pan will remain hot longer so its important to adjust your cooking time and take the pan out of the oven sooner. Additionally, you do not need to brown the butter if you don’t want to! It adds a delicious nutty flavor, but it is not necessary, you can just use melted.
Ingredients
- ¾ c unsalted butter plus 2 Tbsp room temperature for greasing
- 5 oz semisweet chocolate bar, roughly chopped
- 4 oz milk chocolate chips
- ½ c and 2 Tbsp cocoa powder
- 1 ¾ tsp instant coffee or espresso
- 2 Tbsp heavy cream
- 1 tsp vanilla extract, optional
- ½ c white sugar
- ½ c brown sugar
- 1 Tbsp orange zest, zest of 1 medium orange
- 2 eggs
- 1 ¼ tsp kosher salt
- ¾ c all purpose flour
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease an 8x8 baking dish with butter. If desired, line with parchment—parchment isn’t necessary if the pan is nonstick and well greased.
- In a sauce pan with a light colored bottom, melt the butter until brown: heat butter over medium high heat, allowing the water to evaporate leaving behind the fat and milk solids. Using a spatula, stir the butter, scraping the bottom to ensure the milk solids don’t stick and burn. The butter will foam and steam will evaporate. When the steam ceases, the butter will brown quickly so stir frequently until caramel brown.
- Remove from heat and transfer to a bowl with half of the chopped chocolate, and half of the milk chocolate chips, cocoa powder, espresso powder, and heavy cream. Mix until smooth, then add the vanilla, white sugar, brown sugar, and orange zest. Continue stirring until the sugar begins to dissolve and the batter is glossy. Allow to cool for about 5 minutes.
- Once the mixture has cooled, add in the eggs and stir until silky. Add in the salt and flour. Stir until there are only a few white streaks left before adding in the remaining chocolate chips and mixing until no more white streaks appear.
- Pour into prepared baking dish and place on the center rack in the oven. Bake for about 18-22 minutes depending on the baking dish you are using—I always aim to slightly undertake the brownies in the oven because the pan will carry over cook the brownies even after they’re removed from the oven. Allow to sit and come close to room temperature before removing from the pan completely.
- Once the brownies have cooled, make the icing, combine the powdered sugar with the orange juice, zest, and vanilla.