Coffee Cardamom Brownies

If you like Turkish coffee and you like brownies, you will love these. If you like brownies but you’ve never had Turkish coffee, give them a try! Cardamom and coffee both complement chocolate extremely well.

I’ve fallen completely in love with the Gourmet cookbook my sister gave me for Christmas. Now that I finally have the energy to do stuff after school besides collapsing on the couch and watching 30 Rock on hulu, I’ve been having the urge to bake. A lot. I’ve made way too many plain brownies in my life so this time I wanted to step it up a little bit. Mike suggested adding cardamom, based on this cardamom-chocolate torte I made last year.

While I was looking for the cardamom, I happened to come across a little packet of Starbucks Via that I ended up getting in a weird trade with some people at Thai brunch in Berkeley (a story for a different day). Anyway, I immediately thought of Turkish coffee, and these brownies were born. Via is much finer than other instant coffees, so if you don’t have any, I’d use about 1/2 a tablespoon of instant espresso.

In pregnancy-related news, I’ve now told all the other teachers at school and am telling my students as they ask. Obviously middle school is quite the rumor mill, and I’ve been asked numerous times already this year, but now I’ll finally be able to tell them the truth! Another teacher at school had a baby 6 weeks ago and brought him to visit yesterday. I held him for a little while and could not believe that in less than 6 months I’ll have one of my own. It definitely still doesn’t seem real!

Recipe:
(adapted from The Gourmet Cookbook)

1 stick butter, cut into tablespoons
2 1/2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
1 tube Via or 1/2 Tbsp instant espresso

Preheat the oven to 325 F.

Grease and flour an 8″ square pan. Shake out excess flour.

Melt the butter and chocolate in a 3 qt saucepan over low. Remove from the heat, let cool slightly, then stir in the sugar, eggs, and vanilla.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, cardamom and coffee. Stir into the chocolate mixture, mixing just until all traces of flour disappear.

Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool the pan on a wire rack completely before cutting into squares.