Recipe #9: Mocha Brownies

Recipe: Mocha Brownies
Source: The Pioneer Woman Cooks
Time: 1 hr plus time for brownies to cool and icing to set
Ease: 2
Taste: 5
Leftover Value: 6
Down the Drain or Keep in the Strainer: Down the Drain.

These brownies are obnoxious.  I'm just going to call them like they are.  They are monsters.

I knew these brownies were over the top.  I made them several years ago and heeded PW's warning that the icing was a lot---so I halved it.  The brownies were good, the icing was good, but together it seemed like overkill.  Also, the brownies were extremely crumbly--perhaps this is why the last step is to refrigerate them.

Since this time I couldn't make any changes, I decided I needed to make the icing as directed.

Only, as you can probably tell from the picture, I forgot the last part about refrigerating them.

Either way, with icing that has hardened or icing that is still creamy smooth, this will be the last time I make these brownies.  At least in this way.

There are far too many brownie recipes out there that I love for me to make brownies that I'm just okay with.

IF you are into icing, and IF you like a thick brownie, then this is for you.

Should I choose to make these again, I would change two things.

1. Instead of baking them in an 8-inch square baking dish, I would use a 9 x 13 dish.

Aside from the brownies themselves being ridiculously thick, one of the major issues I had with their size was not being sure that they were done.  I know brownies are the sort of thing that can be a little underdone, but because of their thickness, I didn't want to be serving chocolate mush as dessert.

2. I would alternate between halving the icing and simply making the brownies without it at all.

The icing was delicious (and if you have any family members who wrinkle their nose to coffee flavoring, milk could be substituted for the coffee), but because of the richness of the brownies, I feel like the icing was out of place.