First bake: mochachino brownies with white mocha sauce

I went to visit my boyfriend yesterday and took a batch of mochachino brownies with me at his request for something sweet to follow his wonderful Raymond Blanc beetroot risotto (this isn’t his blog, but it’s the same recipe). These are from an M&S brownie recipe book I received in a work Secret Santa a few years ago and contains some particularly delightful brownie desserts perfect for wowing a dinner party.

These brownies manage to make use of all three kinds of chocolate; milk chocolate chips and dark chocolate in the cake and white chocolate in the sauce. Despite this (and the fact I used dark chocolate with 72% cocoa solids) they aren’t overly chocolatey and you still get a strong sense of the cinnamon, walnut and coffee flavours that run throughout, which I find very pleasing indeed! That being said, I do think the recipe could stand a little more of the dark chocolate, so I would recommend trying this if you’re a real cocoa fiend.

Overall, I found these very quick and easy to make and well-received by everyone who tried them. I think this recipe is a good one to have on standby for when you need to whip up an impressive dessert at short notice – I would estimate a total prep/cooking time of a little over an hour. The portions are very generous and the dessert is pretty rich overall, so bear this in mind when planning your menu.

I didn’t have any golden caster sugar, so I substituted it for 200g of standard caster sugar and 50g of golden granulated sugar, which worked fine (I probably could have stuck 250g of the granulated stuff in a spice grinder, but didn’t really have time). I also used instant coffee in the cake as I’d run out of coffee for my cafetiere. This may have slightly diluted the coffee flavour, but it was still there as a background note, and I managed to get some ‘real’ coffee into the sauce when I whipped it up at my boyfriend’s house anyway.

A note on the ‘white’ mocha sauce: the picture in the book suggests the sauce should be white/cream in colour, but after adding the coffee I found it turned the chocolate-brown shade you can see in my pic. It still tastes very much like white chocolate, though, so I wouldn’t worry if you experience the same effect.

Mochachino brownies in the tin

The recipe

From Blissful Brownies, published by M&S

Makes 8-9

• 115g/4 oz unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing
• 115g/4 oz plain chocolate
• 2 tbsp strong black coffee
• 250g/9 oz golden caster sugar
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 85g/3 oz plain flour
• 55g/2 oz milk chocolate chips
• 55g/2 oz toasted walnuts, skinned and chopped, plus extra to decorate

For the sauce:

• 100ml/3.5 fl oz double cream
• 85g/3 oz white chocolate
• 1 tbsp strong black coffee

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Grease and line a 23 cm/9-inch square baking tin.

2. Place the butter, chocolate and coffee in a medium saucepan over a low heat and stir until just melted and smooth. Cool slightly.

3. Whisk in the sugar, cinnamon and eggs. Beat in the flour, chocolate chips and walnuts. Pour into the prepared tin.

4. Bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes, until just firm but still moist inside. Cool in the tin and cut into squares or bars.

5. Meanwhile, make the sauce by placing all the ingredients in a small pan over a low heat, stirring occasionally, until melted and smooth.

6. Place the brownies on individual plates and spoon the warm sauce on top. Decorate with chopped walnuts and serve.