Ancho Chile Brownies

Inspired by some brownies I brought home from The Chicago Food Swap, Ancho Chile Brownies are fudge brownies with just a tiny kick of heat. While they do call for ancho chile, the Ancho Chile Brownies are not majorly spiced like Chipotle Brownies and some others.

Ancho Chile Brownies Size

You can cut Ancho Chile Brownies any size.  The food swap brownies were 4 inch squares, which is perfect for wrapping individually and selling at bake sales. And I like how these brownies were wrapped and labeled – very simply, with a black and white label touting their status as Texas State Fair Best of Show. This was the Chicago Food Swap, but the lady who brought the brownies was from Texas.

Unfortunately, food swaps move quickly and I wasn’t able to get the brownie recipe. To figure it out myself, I made a few different ancho chile brownie recipes including one from The Texas State Fair. The State Fair recipe was not exactly like the swap brownie, but close!

Ancho Chile Brownie Texture

Ancho Chile Brownie are both cakey and fudgy. They look cakey until you bite into them and find they are fudgy. They are better with high quality unsweetened chocolate, though you can also use everyday baking chocolate if needed. Definitely use unsweetened, though.

Where to Find Ancho Chile Powder

As for the ancho, ancho chile powder is usually found with the spices, on the Mexican aisle or in some cases, the produce section. Some ancho seems to have a little more heat than others which may have to do with freshness. If you really want it fresh you can grind your own. Just remove the stem and seeds from an ancho, toast it a bit in the skillet and put it in a coffee grinder.

Recipe

Ancho Chile Brownies

Anna

Brownies that are neither too cakey nor too fudgy and have a little heat at the end from ancho chile. Make sure to use really good quality unsweetened chocolate and don't try to substitute bittersweet. I haven't tried making these with the cocoa powder substitute (which in this case would be 6 tablespoons of cocoa and 2 tablespoons of oil), but I'm sure it would change the texture.

5 from 1 vote

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Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 30 minutes mins

Total Time 40 minutes mins

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Servings 16

Ingredients

 

• 1 stick unsalted butter (114 grams)
• 2 ounces best quality unsweetened chocolate, chopped*** (56 grams)
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup granulated sugar (200 grams)
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• ½ cup all-purpose flour** (70 grams)
• ⅜ teaspoon salt omit if using salted butter
• ¼ teaspoon double-acting baking powder
• 1 ⅛ teaspoon ancho chile powder
• 1 cup dark or semisweet chocolate chips

Instructions

 

• Preheat the oven to 350F. Line an 8 inch square metal pan with nonstick foil.
• Melt the butter and chocolate together in the top of a double boiler, stirring often until melted and smooth. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.
• Beat eggs on high speed of an electric mixer. Gradually add sugar and vanilla, beating 3 minutes or until thick and pale.
• With a heavy duty scraper, fold in the chocolate mixture until blended.
• Thoroughly whisk the flour, salt, baking powder and ancho powder together in a separate bowl, then stir the flour mixture into the chocolate mixture. Make sure the batter is not so warm that it will melt the chocolate chips, then stir in chips.
• Pour into the pan and bake on center rack at at 350° for 25 to 30 minutes. They're done when a meat thermometer inserted in the center registers 210. Let cool in a pan set on a wire rack for about an hour, then transfer to refrigerator and chill for another hour or two or until very cold.
• Lift foil with brownies out of pan. Cut brownies into 4 Texas size squares. You can then wrap the four squares or cut each square into smaller servings.

Notes

The original recipe called for ¾ cup sifted flour, but I've updated the amount to ½ cup (70 grams) unsifted to avoid potential dryness. Too much flour increases the chances the brownies will be dry, so it's better to err on the side of too little flour than too much.
Use unsweetened chocolate -- not 85%, 70% or semisweet. Using anything other than unsweetened chocolate will change the brownie.

Ancho chili powder can usually be found in the spice section or in the Mexican food aisle. Make sure what you're getting is pure ancho powder without any additional salt or seasonings. Alternatively, you can make your own ancho powder by removing the stem and seeds of an ancho pepper (dried poblano), toasting in a skillet, then grinding in an old coffee or spice grinder. If you want a little more heat in the brownie, add ⅛ to ¼ teaspoon of ground cayenne in place of the same amount of ancho powder.

Keyword ancho brownies, brownies

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