Brownie Sundae

Remember this picture? I posted it a couple of days ago. Having gained 2 pounds over the last week, I figured I should stay away from my chocolate for a while. 2 days should be long enough, right? I was dying to get into this Ghirardelli Intense chocolate bar. It’s called Twilight. I knew without a doubt that it was fate that I found it right after buying my first Stephenie Meyer book, Twilight. I’m sure most of you have heard of her vampire series. And as for moi (me), I'm ahuge vampire fan. I was really bummed when Anne Rice decided to stop her Vampire Chronicles. But hey, October is right around the corner and it’s my time of year. I needed to get back into my element.

Back to the chocolate. My daughter had purchased a box of those new M & M’s for me, The M & M Premiums. Triple Chocolate: layers of milk, white and dark chocolate all rolled up into one. Should I combine these two or keep them separate? Keep them separate I think. I already know what I want to do with the M & M’s. So, what to do with the Ghirardelli’s? This is going to be a simple dinner night for Bob and me. Lily’s got the night shift at Andre’s Pizzeria where she works and it’s too muggy to be standing by the stove for too long. Simple steak sandwiches and home-style hash browns will do the trick. I’ll just make Bob a nice dessert to go with it. My Mexican Chocolate Brownies topped with vanilla ice cream and drizzled with a ganache made with the Twilight chocolate. Perfect. Maybe he’ll even clean the kitchen for me …NOT.

Enjoy the brownies and look for the new and interesting in chocolate. It’s coming up to that time of the year where you want to fill those stockings with cool and crazy chocolate bits to satisfy everyone’s chocolate dreams.

Mexican Chocolate Brownies

½ cup all purpose flour
1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
½ round disc Mexican chocolate, pulverized
1/8 teaspoon salt
6 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
¾ cup (1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter, diced, room temperature
4 large eggs1 cup sugar
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla

For brownies: Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 350°. Generously butter 8X8X2 inch metal baking pan; dust with flour. Mix first three ingredients in small bowl. Stir chocolates and butter in top of double boiler set over simmering water until melted and smooth. Turn off heat. Let chocolate stand over water.

Using electric mixer, beat eggs and sugar in large bowl until mixture thickens and falls in soft ribbon when beaters are lifted, about 5 minutes. Beat in vanilla. Stir in flour mixture in 2 additions, blending well after each. Gradually add warm chocolate to egg mixture, beating until just combined.

Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake brownies until top is set and tester inserted into center comes out with moist crumbs attached, about 35 minutes. Cool completely in pan on rack.

I used a round cutter for the brownies. They look fancier that way. Top with vanilla ice cream and drizzle with some ganache made with the Twilight chocolate bar.

Ganache: chopped chocolate bar, ¼ cup hot cream. Stir until melted and drizzle.
Enjoy.