Ever since I read (and saw) Chocolate, I've been fascinated by the idea of chocolate with chilies in it. And come to think of it, my favorite chocolate bar, the one that I'd rather have than a whole box of Hershey's, is a slightly spicy coconut curry variety from 3400 Phinney. But I've never used anything spicy with chocolate when I've baked with it. And since I was in the mood for brownies last night, and I had some decent chocolate bars, one of which had chilies mixed in, I figured, hey, why not. The proportions for this recipe come from the Cooks Illustrated Brownie Recipe. I've halved the recipe and made a few changes to incorporate the type of chocolate I had. It make a cake pan or a 8 by 8 brownie pan full of lovely, dense and just barely spicy (more warming) brownies. Just the thing for a cool, crisp weekend.
6 T butter, diced
3 ounces of 85% cocoa chocolate.
5 ounces of chili chocolate (I used Lindt)
1/2 c + 2 T flour (I used bread flour and liked the results, but AP flour would be fine I think)
1/8 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 T flour
1/2 cup chocolate chips
Preheat the oven to 325
In a double boiler melt the chocolate and butter. Set aside to cool slightly. In a medium bowl mix the flour (minus the 1 T at the bottom) the baking powder and salt. Add the sugar to the melted chocolate and then whisk in the eggs one at a time. Fold the wet mixture into the dry ingredients. In a small bowl toss the remaining 1 T flour with the chocolate chips until they are well coated. Discard any excess flour and add the chips to the brownie mixture. Pour into a well greased pan and bake until a toothpick comes out almost, but not quite, clean. For my oven this was 27 minutes. Check every 2 or 3 minutes after the 20 minute mark so they don't over cook. Cool for about 30 minutes before removing from pan and slicing.