Mexican Brownies

Tastespotting is an obsession. Well, sorta. It’s just really great food porn, which should be obvious since this will be the 4th mention of it in this blog. Anyway, I came across this recipe the other day and thought “bingo! Now I know what to do with all that Ibarra I have sitting around.” It’s just been sitting in the pantry since I worked on this project back in December. I love making brownies, especially since I now own a double boiler, and it seems like everyone likes them. Doing a twist on the same old thing is always fun.

One thing that did bug me is that the original recipe did not include cinnamon or chili powder. How can you call it Mexican brownies without those? Both ingredients enhance the special flavor that is Mexican chocolate. I first learned about chili powder in chocolate in my first Spanish class back in high school. My teacher was amazing and told us great stories about Spain and Mexico and food. I think it is a fabulous pairing and it goes really well with these brownies.

Mexican Brownies from foodlibrarian.blogspot.com:

Makes one delicious pan of brownies

3 circles Ibarra chocolate
2 oz. (2 squares) unsweetened chocolate
12 Tb. (1½ sticks) butter
1 c. plus 2 Tb. brown sugar
3 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
1¾ c. flour
½ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
4 tsp.-ish cinnamon plus more for the top (I only sort of measured)
A bit of chili powder (about ½ tsp.)
Raw sugar

Heat oven to 350 degrees.



Melt chocolate with butter in the top part of a double boiler, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon. You can totally fake a double boiler with a bowl resting on top of a pot with simmering water. In the meantime, mix the dry ingredients together in another bowl. After the chocolate cools, beat in the sugar and the eggs, one at a time. Mix in vanilla then fold in dry ingredients. It was at this time I decided that there wasn’t enough cinnamon or chili powder in the mix, so I added more. Adjust flavor to taste.



Lightly grease a pan and sprinkle the bottom with raw sugar. Pour in the batter. Bang the pan if you need to in order to even out the batter in the pan. Sprinkle the top with more raw sugar and cinnamon.

Bake for about 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Let cool on a rack before eating.



These are extremely rich, dense, fudgy, and delicious. I really, really like them. Aaron says a glass of milk is necessary. Next time I do them (because I WILL do these again), I’ll add a smidge more chili powder. Other than that, awesome! I’m really impressed with how well these turned out.