So here’s the thing: I absolutely LOVE sweets, but I rarely make them in my own home. Why is that, you ask? Because of the temptation. If I have a plate filled with brownies or cookies sitting in the kitchen, you had better believe I will eat a bite or two of them each time I walk past.

BUT…when I do decide to treat myself with sweets, I don’t want to hold back. Give me fudgy, give me indulgent, give me chocolate!

So, when I heard about a contest being held by Dixie Crystals for the upcoming Food & Wine Conference next week, I knew it was the perfect time to whip out my stand mixer and get baking. Dixie Crystals is challenging folks to create an original brownie based dessert between July 7-12. The winner will be selected and announced at the Food & Wine Conference…and their creation will be the featured dessert of the conference. Pretty cool, right?

Ok, so one of my favorite indulgent flavor combinations is chocolate and coffee. There is something so delicious about the pairing; I think the flavors bring out the best in each other. But I didn’t want to stop there. You can have a brownie…but you can also have a frosted brownie. Boom. I wanted to balance out the rich, fudgy chocolate brownie with a decadently sweet white chocolate buttercream…with Kahlua for that extra hint of coffee flavor. Well, if you want to get technical about it, both the brownie and the frosting are decadent, but that’s beside the point. The sweetness and the richness are a perfect pairing in my book, and I could probably consume the entire tray of brownies if left to my own devices.

I’ll be honest – the recipe for the buttercream does yield a large amount. If you don’t want your brownies topped high with frosting, you could cut the frosting recipe in half. But like I said, when I am making dessert I go all out…and this frosting was so good that I could simply eat it by the spoonful. And between you and me, I did just that. For the sake of taste testing of course! You’re welcome. I will be making this frosting again for other dessert purposes in the future: mark my words. Anyway,  to finish everything up you can top these fudgy brownies with the buttercream frosting alone…or to give it an extra touch of flair, do as I did and lightly dust the tops with cocoa powder. I just think it looks pretty, don’t you?

So, make haste and whip up a batch of these brownies as soon as humanly possible. But keep in mind: these aren’t for the faint of heart…or for those on a diet. HA!

Are you a fan of frosted brownies? What is your preference, fudge or cake-like brownies?

Fudgy Chocolate Brownies

Ingredients

1 teaspoon instant coffee

1 tablespoon hot water

2 eggs

1/2 cup cocoa

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 tablespoons natural applesauce

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1 cup Dixie Crystals sugar

3/4 cup flour

1 cup dark chocolate chips

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease an 8×8 inch pan and set aside.

2. Mix together instant coffee with the hot water in a small dish and set aside to combine and cool. Mixture will be very dark in color.

3. Crack eggs and beat lightly. Add cocoa, salt, baking powder, vanilla, applesauce, and coffee mixture. Beat to combine.

4. In a microwave safe dish, combine butter and sugar. Melt on low power, stirring occasionally, until sugar dissolves into the butter (don’t let it get hot enough to bubble though). For my microwave, it took 2.5 minutes at power level 3. Alternately, you could melt together the butter and sugar with a double boiler on the stove.

5. Add butter/sugar mixture to the egg/cocoa mixture, and beat to combine. Gradually add the flour to the mix. When the batter is combined, gently fold the dark chocolate chips in.

6. Spread batter evenly into greased pan and bake for about 30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of the brownies comes out clean. Allow brownies to cool completely, then spread with white chocolate Kahlua buttercream. Cut into squares, then sprinkle each with a light dusting of cocoa powder. Refrigerate, or serve immediately (I actually found that I like them served slightly cold out of the fridge, but they’re good either way…yum). Enjoy!

White Chocolate Kahlua Buttercream

Ingredients

3 oz white baking chocolate

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 tablespoons Kahlua

2 1/4 cups Dixie Crystals confectioners sugar

1 tablespoon milk

Instructions

1. Carefully melt the white chocolate in the microwave or over the stove on a double boiler, then set aside to cool.

2. With a mixer, cream the butter, then add vanilla. Gradually add the confectioners sugar 1/2 cup at a time, scraping the sides of the bowl as it mixes. When powdered sugar is fully incorporated, add the milk, Kahlua, and white chocolate, and beat until fluffy and fully combined.

3. Spread on top of fudgy chocolate brownies and enjoy!