When I mention Brownies I am thinking gooey, fudgy, rich chocolate mouthfuls. However, now I have taken it one step further on the advice of a Mexican spice king and it means chilli. Plenty of it. I’m betting these Chilli Chocolate Brownies are unlike any others you might have tried.
I found this recipe in an old magazine at the dentist’s. It was created by a well known Mexican chef by the name of Aaron Sanchez. This guy likes to spice things up more than a notch. Of course you can tone it down but if your are used to some heat, I think the amount of cayenne pepper used is a good place to start.
Chilli Chocolate Brownies are not for the uninitiated. They heat up your mouth and pack a small punch but boy do they taste good! The hint of cinnamon really makes them sensational and is definitely what makes these brownies stand out.
This was my first batch cooked exactly as prescibed by Aaron Sanchez.
This was the second batch., cooked in a bread maker as there’s no oven on board. I halved the recipe and mixed it in a different order.
Below you will find the same recipe written twice. The reason being is that one suits a normal oven and the other is suitable for bread makers. The latter is mixed in a different manner and only makes a half batch. It is important to follow the recipe that suits your appliance.
- 200g butter melted
- 4 large eggs
- 2 cups sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla essence
- ⅔ cup high quality unsweetened cocoa
- 1 cup plain flour
- 1½ tsp cinnamon
- 2 flat tsp cayenne pepper
- ¼ tsp salt
- ½ tsp baking powder
- Preheat the oven to 170C or 350F degrees.
- Line a 23cm x 33cm or 9" x 13" baking dish with parchment paper, leaving an overhang on two sides.
- Press the paper into the corners of the pan and lightly grease the paper with butter.
- Melt the butter gently and allow to cool slightly
- Add sugar, eggs and vanilla to saucepan and stir with a wooden spoon to combine
- Add cocoa, flour, cinnamon, chillil powder, salt and baking powder
- Mix until smooth
- Spread batter into prepared pan and bake until a toothpick comes out fudgy from the middle of the tin
- This will take around 25 minutes depending on your oven
- Cool the pan on a rack then use the parchment paper to lift out the brownies before slicing
Now that we are living on a yacht, we do not have the luxury of an oven so I settled for making these in the bread maker.
I was really pleased with how they turned out, using a breadmaker. It was incredibly easy.
To make these Chilli Chocolate Brownies in the bread maker it was necessary to halve the recipe and adjust the order in which the ingredients were added.
- oil for tin
- 100g melted butter
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- ⅓ cup good quality cocoa powder
- ½ cup plain flour
- ¾ tsp cinnamon powder
- 1 flat tsp cayenne pepper or as desired
- Pinch of salt
- ¼ tsp baking powder
- 2 large eggs
- Remove the blade from the bread tin
- Oil the tin
- Melt the butter in a medium sized saucepan
- Add the sugar and vanilla to the melted butter and stir hard until it is very well blended
- Leave to rest a few minutes so that the sugar can dissolve a bit and the butter cools down
- Add the cocoa and stir well until there are no lumps
- Add the flour and stir well again until smooth
- Add the cinnamon, cayenne to taste, salt and baking powder
- Lastly add the eggs and stir very well until the whole mixture is very smooth and shiny
- Pour the batter into the bread tin and set to bake on cake setting
- After 30 minutes check with toothpick in the centre to see if fudgy
- It could take up to 40 minutes
- Remove tin and place tin in a cool spot on a rack
- Allow cake to cool in tin
- Gently ease a spatula around the brownies and tip onto a board and cut into squares
- Serve with vanilla ice cream
Hi Lulu! Living on a boat is really testing your creativity I see!! Good on you for making these brownies in a breadmaker!!! Amazing! I love the photos too. Are you doing OK? I hope you have some sort of AC system on your boat!!! xxxx
Hi Claudia, I’m dreaming about an AC system. I can tell you. It’s truly testing me at the moment. At least the bread maker can be set up on deck so it doesn’t heat up more inside! Stay cool! Love from Finike