Cappuccino Brownies with White Chocolate Sauce

These aren’t lunchbox brownies. They’re a plated restaurant dessert, dense, dark, and laced with coffee, then cut into tidy rounds and served in a pool of warm white chocolate sauce.

The flavour comes from three layers of coffee-compatible ingredients. Brewed cappuccino goes into both the batter and the sauce. A half-teaspoon of cinnamon mirrors the cappuccino dust you’d get in a Milan cafe. Toasted hazelnuts bring a warm, aromatic crunch that coffee and chocolate have always loved.

The trick to the signature fudgy texture is pulling them out when a tester comes up with “moist crumbs attached," not clean. Clean-tester brownies are overbaked and cakey, the line between perfect and ruined is about 90 seconds.

Foil-lining the pan with an overhang lets you lift the whole slab out clean for cutting. Use a round cookie cutter for elegant rounds if you want the dinner-party presentation, or just cut squares for a casual plate.

Pro Tips

• Use good-quality imported white chocolate in the sauce, cheap white chocolate is waxy and won’t emulsify properly.
• Toast the hazelnuts and rub off the skins in a clean towel, skins are bitter and ruin the delicate crunch.
• Let the chocolate-butter mixture cool slightly before adding eggs, or you’ll scramble them.
• Cut the brownies chilled with a hot knife wiped between cuts for clean edges.

Variations

• Swap hazelnuts for toasted pecans or walnuts if nuts are your preference.
• Add a tablespoon of Frangelico or Kahlua to the sauce for a boozy finish.
• Dust the plate with cocoa powder instead of powdered sugar for a more bitter, mocha-forward presentation.