Sometimes I just love to drink a Moccachino or a hot chocolate with a shot of espresso. I love the combination of coffee and chocolate or so called ‘Mocha’ flavor. Therefore I made a french buttercream with espresso! Don’t have any instant coffee in house? You can also use one shot of espresso & leave out the coffee powder. However I do love the extra coffee boost, which you get by adding the powder.
To give this brownie a slightly nutty flavor, I added some chestnut flour. However, you could substitute this for hazelnut or almond flour. Just as delicious!
Chestnut Chocolate Brownies & Mocha Cream
Equipment
- Non-Stick Traybake/Brownie Tin (7.8×7.8inches or 20x20cm)
- Handmixer
- Bowl
- Bowl
- Saucepan
- Cooking Pot
- Piping Bag
- Icing Piping Nozzle of 2cm // 0.78 inches
Ingredients
Chestnut Brownie
- 100 gram Butter unsalted
- 250 gram Chocolate
- 150 gram Cane Sugar
- 50 gram Chestnut Flour
- 2 tbsp Cornstarch
- 3 Eggs
- Salt
- 1 tbsp Vanilla Extract
Mocha Buttercream
- 2 Eggs
- 150 gram Sugar
- 50 ml Water
- 200 gram Butter
- 1 tbsp Instant Coffee
- ½ Espresso cold
Decoration
- Chocolate Beans
- Almond Chips
Instructions
Preparations
- Preheat the oven on 170 degrees Celsius or 338 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Chop the chocolate in small pieces and cut the butter in cubes. You can also cut the butter for the buttercream in cubes, and leave these on room temperature.
- Butter your baking tin lightly and, if you like, add some baking paper.
Melting Chocolate
- Add the chocolate, butter and sugar to a cooking pot or sauce pan. Mix this on a low heat until all the ingredients are melted.
- In the meanwhile, you can sieve the flour and cornstarch in order to get the lumps out.
- Pour the chocolate mix into another bowl. Mix it with an electric handmixer until the mixture is cooled down to room temperature.
- Add the eggs, one by one, while whisking. Once incorporated, you can add the salt, vanilla and flours. Mix this until you have an even batter without any lumps.
- Pour the batter in the baking tin. To remove all the bubbles in the batter, you can gently tap the baking tin on the kitchen counter.
- Bake the brownies for about 25-30 minutes.
Mocha Cream
- Break the eggs in a fat-free bowl and whisk these until fluffy and a pale yellow color.
- In the meanwhile, add the sugar and water to a saucepan. Bring this to a boil on a low-medium heat until it reached a temperature of 120 degrees Celsius or 248 degrees Fahrenheit. Don't have a sugar thermometer? In that case, dip a spoon in de sugar syrup and cool it down in ice cold water. The sugar syrup is ready when the cooled down syrup is firm but still flexible.
- While whisking, pour the sugar syrup very slowly on the fluffy eggs.
- Once you've added all the sugar syrup, you need to keep whisking until the eggs are on room temperature. Then you can add the cubes of butter. Mix this until the buttercream is smooth.
- Time for flavoring! Add the instant coffee powder and a few drops of the espresso at the time. Whisky again until smooth, and your delicious buttercream is ready to be used.
Decorating
- Once the brownie has cooled to room temperature, you can get your toppings ready to go. Transfer your buttercream into a piping bag with a nice icing piping nozzle and toast your almonds chips shortly.
- Decorate your brownie with the buttercream and top off with almond chips and chocolate beans!