Kahlua Mocha Brownies

...or as I like to call them - "mmmmfff, oh yeah!" brownies.  Because that's all you will be able to say while eating them.  Meg Ryan's orgasm in the cafe scene in When Harry Met Sally comes to mind when I think of these brownies.  Anyone who is a fan of the coffee/chocolate combination needs to eat these brownies, "Stat! Clear!", as my husband likes to say.  He doesn't watch medical dramas religiously like me, so he doesn't exactly have the terminology down pat. 

Anyway, back to the brownies.  My friend Jay the Red Panda agrees that you need to make these as well, because he would like some.  But more on him later, he deserves his time in the spotlight. 

I made these brownies amid the fury of baking I did for my birthday a few weeks ago.  That's one of the things I wanted to do for my birthday - bake.  What kind of freak am I that I want to potter around the kitchen all day, baking for other people?  (Ok, admittedly Jonno and I did polish off the Peanutbutter Chocolate Chippies that he made, so they never made it to the "other people" stage!)  But seriously, I actually wanted to spend the day with the oven.  The oven that we have a love/hate relationship with.  The oven that we're pretty sure harbored a mouse corpse for a while, stinking up the flat every time we turned it on with that burnt-hair/dead mouse smell.  The oven that doesn't know if it wants to burn something on the top or on the bottom because it just likes being fickle and surprising us every time.  The oven that has no true middle rack.  That oven.  Love/hate.  Or really, more like need/hate.  I need it to make my brownies.  I need it to bake my comfort cookies.  I neeeeed that damn oven.  But I don't have to like it.

I only barely got a photo of the beautiful brownies because my work mates went after them like starved kids at fat camp.  For these lovelies, I combined RecipeGirl's Fudgy Kahlua Brownies with The Pioneer Woman's Mocha Brownie frosting mainly because I had a big ol' bucket of frosting left over from when I had made the rest of PW's real Mocha Brownies (from her cookbook The Pioneer Woman Cooks).  It was yum, delish, drool-worthy even.  Now go make them!

Kahlua Mocha Brownies

Kahlua Brownies:

• 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour Mae's Mocha Icing:
• ½ tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup unsalted butter
• 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 ½ cups light brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• ½ cup 

Mae's Mocha Frosting

• 1/2 lb. (450g) butter, softened
• 2 cups icing sugar
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup brewed coffee, cooled to room temperature

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F/180°C. Line a 9x9-inch baking dish with baking paper.
2. Makin ze brownies: Sift together the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder and salt); set aside.
3. Get a double-boiler simmering away on the stove, and be sure that the bowl is not touching the water.  Melt the chocolate and butter together until smooth and glorious.  Remove to a cold burner for a bit.
4. In your trusty mixer's bowl, combine sugar, eggs and 1/2 cup Kahlua. Pour in buttery chocolate mixture and beat until mixed well. Mix in dry ingredients and beat just until combined.
5. Scrape your lovely brownie glory into the baking pan.  Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, or until top cracks slightly and toothpick inserted in center comes out mostly clean (it might be slightly gooey on the bottom of the toothpick).
6. Let the brownies cool completely. If you're like me, that means putting them out in your sunroom where the gusty Wellington winds cool that puppy down PDQ.  More effective than a refridgerator and energy efficient!
7. Next, the icing: Combine butter, icing sugar, cocoa powder, salt, and vanilla in a bowl until they get to know each other a bit.
8. Pour in the coffee while whipping the icing to a frenzy.  If it seems too thick to you, add more coffee until it's light and fluffy.
9. Once the brownies are cool, spread the icing thickly over the top.  Put the whole shebang in the fridge (or back out in the sunroom if you're like me) to cool and gel together.  When you're ready to serve them, dip your knife in warm water every few slices to get a clean cut.

*These will be fudgy gooey brownies, not cakey.  If you're not prepared to get a little messy with the eatin', then you may have failed the "how to play in the mud" lesson in preschool.  Go back and relearn that one before attempting these brownies.