KONA COFFEE BROWNIES

Here’s a recipe you might want to try for holiday entertaining. Kona coffee is prized for its bold, clean flavor and in this recipe, that famous Kona coffee flavors both the brownies and their ganache topping.  Don’t fret, we’ll supply you with the Kona coffee but, we’ll admit, good espresso beans and strong brewed espresso work well, too.

Here’s what you’ll need…

Nonstick vegetable oil spray

2 cups sugar

15 tablespoons (2 sticks minus 1 tablespoon) unsalted butter

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

3 tablespoons finely ground Kona coffee beans

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 large eggs

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour

3/4 cup pecan pieces

And for the frosting…

1 cup bittersweet or semisweet chocolate chips (6 ounces)

6 tablespoons freshly brewed Kona coffee

Here’s what you do…

Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray 13x9x2-inch metal pan with nonstick spray. Combine sugar, butter, cocoa, ground Kona coffee, and salt in large metal bowl. Place bowl over saucepan of simmering water and whisk until butter melts and ingredients are blended (texture will be grainy). Remove bowl from over water; cool mixture to lukewarm if necessary. Whisk in eggs and vanilla. Sift flour over and fold in. Mix in pecans.

Spread batter in prepared pan. Bake brownies until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Cool brownies in pan.

Place chocolate chips in small bowl. Bring brewed Kona coffee to simmer in small saucepan; pour over chips and stir until melted and smooth. Let ganache stand until cool and beginning to thicken, about 1 hour; spread evenly over brownies. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover; let stand at room temperature.) Cut brownies into 15 squares.

Lastly, enjoy.  And invite us over!

The Kona Cowboy Coffee Company can get your Christmas coffee consumption going with our four brands of gourmet coffees.  You’ll get a real start on having a great holiday with PANIOLA 100% Kona Cowboy Coffee, grown on Hawaiian volcanoes and roasted in the Rocky Mountains … the one with no bitter aftertaste and no acidity.  CAFÉ PINON de Nuevo Mexico is the Southwest’s favorite with pinion nuts and a perfect way to improve your holiday happiness during the day.  And our MOKA-JAVA is a medium dark roasted blend of Indonesian and Ethiopian coffees that will make you positively positive!  We also make COWBOY ACTION COFFEE, the Official Coffee of the Single Action Shooting Society! 

The purpose of this blog is to unite Kona coffee lovers and perhaps learn a little about coffee and all the benefits of coffee at the same time.  Join up, become a member, comment and have fun!  You can find the Kona Coffee Fiends group on Facebook and we’d appreciate it if Facebook users would “LIKE” the Kona Cowboy Coffee Company page at www.facebook.com/pages/Kona-Cowboy-Coffee-Company/222070817858553.  Just copy and paste to your browser.  You can also find us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/jackshuster.  And on the web at www.KonaCowboyCoffee.com to order your gourmet coffee and coffee products.

You know you’re a coffee fiend when you don't need a hammer to pound nails!  So enjoy your coffee, make it Kona, and remember, Kona is the home of the Hawaiian cowboy…and we had cowboys in Kona before there were cowboys in Texas!