Tasty Tuesday - Surprise Brownies

So. I'm headed to a pot luck, and I need to bring a side and a dessert. That's easy, right? Fortunately I can once again cook inside because it's only 50 degrees outside in the middle of June, thank you very much Chicago. Inspiration, however, is not striking. I can't decide what I want to make.

I don't feel like doing truffles again - since I made four batches to get through all my needed teacher gifts this week already. I'm not up for batches of cookies. I want to do something new, but because it's going to a potluck, it can't be something that is delicate or has to be reheated, and preferably it should be a finger food. Oh, and use eggs since I have a lot of eggs in the house.

Hmmm....

A ha! Brownies. But not just any brownies. I made brownies with a surprise inside, and oh were they good. I'm now sharing the recipe not just with my two friends who were at the potluck (and requested the recipe) but with all of you. Sadly, they're gone on my end.

Surprise Brownies

Ingredients:
1 c butter (2 sticks)
4 oz good quality chocolate, chopped
2 c sugar
4 eggs
1/2 t vanilla
1 t strong coffee or coffee extract
1 1/2 c flour
1/2 t salt
20 chocolate candies like Rollos or filled Hershey's Kisses, etc OR make a ganache like from last week's truffle and use little balls of those

Directions:
Melt together over low heat in a heavy saucepan, or in a double boiler, the chocolate and butter. You want it to look like this:

Remove the chocolate from the heat, and stir in the sugar. I use a whisk for this and most of the rest of the steps to ensure I'm getting lots of air incorporated into the batter so that they are light and fluffy and rise well, as there is no leavening agent in here.

Add the eggs one at a time, and whisk well to incorporate. If you've removed the chocolate from the heat and added the sugar, this should have lowered the temperature of the mixture enough that you won't have scrambled eggs now. The eggs are going to provide lots of your lift, so whisk well.

Add the vanilla and coffee / coffee extract, and mix until fully combined.

Add the salt and mix to stir. The add the flour. Now is when you put away the whisk and gently fold the flour in with your spatula. (Video showing the art of folding on this post for cheese souffle.) You want to fold it until the flour is just combined so that as little gluten as possible forms and your brownies don't get tough or filled with little air bubbles. Trust me.

Fill muffin cups with batter about two-thirds of the way full. I use my mid size cookie scoop for this one, and it's perfect - plus it makes them the same size so they bake evenly. I love my kitchen gadgets!

Add your candies to the center of each brownie. I don't have to tell you to unwrap them first, do I? Nah, I've got faith in you! I placed mine upside down, and that worked perfectly.

Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 20 minutes, until your cake tester comes out clean. Every oven is different, and mine tends to take longer to bake - for me it was closer to 24 minutes, but I have to bake longer for every recipe. Just keep an eye on them, as you don't want them to overbake and get dry.

I simply sprinkled a little powdered sugar on them after letting them cool fully on a cookie rack, and they were good to go. And go they did! Yum. Enjoy this and more with Tempt My Tummy Tuesday and Blessed With Grace!

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