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Espresso Brownies with Caramelised White Chocolate Ganache
Rich, fudgy brownies with an edge of espresso, topped with a whipped caramelised white chocolate ganache. Brownies adapted from Ottolenghi. Caramelised white chocolate ganache adapted from the Swirling Spoon with help from David Lebovitz and Food52
Ingredients
Espresso brownies
  • 170 g unsalted butter
  • 170 g dark chocolate
  • 1 tablespoon instant coffee
  • 3 large eggs
  • 180 g caster sugar (3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons)
  • 100 g plain flour (3/4 cup)
  • 30 g dutch processed cocoa powder (3 tablespoons)
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
Whipped caramelised white chocolate ganache
  • 300 g white chocolate
  • 1/2 cup cream (125ml)
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla paste or seeds from 1 vanilla bean
  • 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
  • flaky sea salt to top
Instructions
Espresso Brownies
  1. In a medium bowl set over a small pot of simmering water, gently melt the butter and chocolate together. Stir in the instant coffee then set aside to cool.
  2. Preheat the oven to 180°C and line a 20cm square baking tin.
  3. With the whisk attachment of a stand mixer or electric beaters, beat the eggs and caster sugar together until pale and thick - they should form smooth ribbons when lifted with a spoon (about 3-5 minutes).
  4. Add the melted chocolate mix and fold in to fully combine.
  5. Sift over the flour, cocoa and salt, and fold to just combine.
  6. Pour into the baking tin and bake for 20-25 minutes or until just set and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out with some moist crumbs (not completely clean).
  7. Cool to room temperature.
Caramelised white chocolate ganache and to finish
  1. Preheat oven to 130°C.
  2. In shallow rectangular baking dish, break up chocolate into small pieces (no need to line the dish).
  3. Place in the oven for 10 minutes, then remove and stir (the chocolate will be white and melted at this point).
  4. Bake for about another 50minutes to an hour, removing and stirring about every 10 minutes, until the chocolate is a deep brown. Your chocolate may seize and crumble (mine did!), especially if it has less than 30% cocoa (most supermarket brands have less). Don’t worry! Just keep stirring until it is a nice toffee caramel colour. Tip into a medium bowl.
  5. Heat the cream until it just bubbles at the edges (but don’t boil it), then pour over the caramelised dark chocolate. Stir with a whisk until you get a smooth ganache. Mine still had some very small white chocolate granules, which is more likely to happen with <30% cocoa, so I used a small bullet blender at this point to get it completely smooth. Otherwise they won’t make much difference to the final product. Stir in the vanilla and fine salt.
  6. Place in the fridge to cool until almost set but still spoonable - kind of like a thick nutella-like consistency.
  7. Transfer into the bowl of a stand mixer and beat with the paddle attachment until lighter in colour, thick and frosting-like.
  8. Trouble shooting this stage: If it’s still quite liquid and doesn’t get lighter when you beat it - refrigerate for another 10 minutes then try again. If it ever seems to split (get oily) - refrigerate for 10 minutes then beat again to emulsify.
  9. Spoon over the cooled brownie base and use the back of a spoon or an offset spatula to spread it, making some swoops and swirls. Top with the flaky sea salt and serve. I actually like this better after it has been refrigerated to firm up a bit, but either way it is delicious.
  10. Store leftovers in the fridge in an airtight container to munch on!