Espresso bark

I made some trays of holiday treats this year for our doormen, B's coworkers, and the baristas at my favorite coffee shop. I wanted a nice mix of candies, marshmallows, and cookies.  Which is exactly what I made!  In terms of candies, my super-awesome homemade peppermint bark made the cut (duh!), as did this (insanely easy, melt-in-your-mouth delicious) espresso bark!

This bark......Oh, this bark!  It's melt in your mouth soft but not too sweet and totally caffeinated!  It was a shame that there were so many little shards of it left on the cutting board after I cut it, so I just had to sample every.  last.  one of them.  P.S. that "it was a shame" part was dripping in sarcasm, in case you couldn't tell...

And the best part?  There are THREE ingredients.  Three.  Two different kinds of chocolate chips and roughly ground espresso beans.  And it's amazing!  I bet it would be awesome in homemade vanilla or coffee ice cream (I still haven't tried homemade ice cream....) or in chocolate chip or double chocolate cookies....which I'm totally going to have to real soon!

Espresso Bark
Adapted from The Food Poet (I changed their coffee bark to espresso bark)

Ingredients:

2 cups Extra Dark Chocolate chips
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup whole espresso beans

4 cups of water

Directions:

Pour espresso beans into a coffee grinder and grind until almost fine.  Some slightly bigger chunks are fine.  This allows for a bit more coarseness of beans for texture.

Pour water into a heavy pot.
In a double boiler, pour in the chocolate chips.
Place double boiler over heavy pot.

Cover a baking sheet with sides with a sheet of parchment paper.

Stir the chocolate chips as they begin melting.
Continue stirring them until smooth.
Remove from the heat.

Stir the ground espresso beans into the smooth chocolate until well integrated.
Spoon the chocolate-espresso mixture onto the parchment-lined sheet.  Take care to work it into the corners and try to maintain a level surface.

Place the sheet in the fridge for at least 3 hours.
Break into chunks or chop with a heavy knife.

Enjoy, and try to leave enough over to give as gifts or share with others!

Espresso brownies

Tuesday was National Coffee Day.  I don't know who comes up with these national food holidays, but I would like to thank the person who came up with this one.  I am obsessed with coffee!  I used to spend many of my waking non-work moments studying in Starbucks when I was a grad student (both times, all three of you count that second bachelors...), and I still frequent the chain, but lately I've been seriously crushing on the iced americanos from this little coffee shop in my neighborhood, Laughing Man (and in case you don't live in my neighborhood -- if you do, stop by and say hi! -- and want to sample it, I just read the coffee is available for Keurig!!).

But I digress.  Enough about my favorite coffee (I could go on and on).  Back to what I had been saying: It was national coffee day, and I didn't have a coffee treat for you guys.  I could've let it go by unnoticed. I could've made the coffee syrup that I saw online that day (that'll be coming soon), but with nothing to put it on it would've been sad.  So I decided to wait and make something good.  Like these espresso brownies.  Which are really just a modification of these yummy brownies I made for Yom Kippur break fast (and on Valentine's Day last year).  Because they're so freaking good, and because when pumped up with espresso flavor, they can take the place of a brownie and a cup of coffee -- a two-for-one deal.

Wait!  Am I rambling?  I think I may be rambling.  I don't know why I'm so hopped up.  Oh, right, maybe it's because I licked the batter?  The batter with 3 tablespoons of espresso powder? Yeah, maybe that's it.  Why am I still rambling??

OK, meltdown aside, these brownies are awesome.  The espresso goes so nicely with the chocolate in the brownie, you might even be able to call them mocha, but I like the ring of espresso brownies better.  And they'll give you a little buzz, but in a good mellow I-just-had-a-shot-of-espresso way. Lip smacking good!  

P.S. I don't think anyone would fault you if you enjoyed one of these with a cup of coffee!

Espresso Brownies 
Adapted from these heavenly Fudge Brownies from Yammie's Noshery

Ingredients:

2 sticks of butter
2 1/4 cups of sugar
4 large eggs
1 Tbsp vanilla
1 1/4 cups of cocoa powder (I used Dutch press)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 cups of flour
2 cups chocolate chips
3 Tbsp espresso powder

Directions:

Grease a 9 x 13 inch pan.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Mix together the butter and sugar in a microwave safe bowl.
Heat in the microwave, stirring about every 30 seconds, until the mixture is bubbly and smooth (mine was smooth, but not so bubbly).  You can also do this on the stove.

Add in the eggs and vanilla and beat until smooth.
Add the espresso powder and mix well to incorporate.
Mix together the cocoa powder, salt, baking powder, and flour.  I just sifted it into the butter mixture, in about 3 additions.
Add to the butter mixture, mixing until smooth.
Stir in the chocolate chips.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan.
Bake for about 28 minutes.  I baked mine for 25 minutes.  They were delicious, but very gooey when they came out of the oven.  They did set up nicely when the cooled.