I’m a huge fan of Alice Medrich, an American food writer who experiments with different flours, nuts and chocolate. This recipe is based on her cakey brownie recipe and uses only cocoa powder, not melted chocolate. I love coffee and chocolate together and combine them here. You can use pecans or hazelnuts instead of walnuts.

Timings 

Prep time: 15 minutes, plus cooling time

Cook time: 40 minutes

Serves

Makes 16-25

Ingredients

For the brownies

  • 140g butter, cut into chunks, plus extra for greasing
  • 250g soft light-brown sugar
  • 1 tsp instant coffee, dissolved in 1½ tsp boiling water
  • 80g cocoa powder, sifted
  • 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
  • 65g plain flour, sifted
  • 65g chopped walnuts

 For the icing

  • 50g unsalted butter 
  • 100g icing sugar, sifted
  • 10g cocoa powder, sifted
  • 3 tsp instant coffee (espresso if you prefer a more intense flavour), dissolved in 1½ tsp boiling water
  • chocolate coffee beans, to decorate

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 160C/150C fan/gas mark 3 and position a rack two-thirds of the way down. Butter a 20cm square cake tin and line with 2 pieces of parchment paper so that each piece overhangs the edges to allow for easy removal.
  2. For the brownies, put the butter, sugar, coffee mixture and ¼ tsp salt into a frying pan and heat very gently, stirring until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture has emulsified. 
  3. Take off the heat and mix in the cocoa powder until well incorporated. Leave to cool a little, then beat in the eggs a little at a time, and stir in the flour and walnuts. The batter should be smooth and glossy. Stir until you can’t see any more flour and the mix is just warm, not hot. 
  4. Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 20-25 minutes. Allow to cool in the tin.
  5. For the icing, slowly melt the butter in a pan, then increase the heat and cook until it turns golden brown and smells nutty. Leave to cool.
  6. Mix the icing sugar with the cocoa powder in a bowl. Beat in the cooled burnt butter, then gradually beat in the liquid coffee. Add a bit more water if needed, to make it spreadable. 
  7. Lift the cool brownies out of the tin using the paper. Spread the icing on top or cut into squares then ice, as you prefer. Add a chocolate coffee bean to each square.

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