Chocolate Mascarpone Brownies

These brownies are incredibly rich but very good. If you need a dessert to bring to a party or for a special event this is a great recipe. The brownies slice very nicely and look beautiful. The original recipe calls for two sticks of butter and I modified the recipe slightly and only used one stick. My version turned out very well and I think they might have tasted too buttery with the extra stick of butter! I used ghiradelli 72% cacao chocolate for the ganache and brownie and I think next time I will go something a little sweeter. The ganache was just a little too bitter.

Here's the recipe I used...

Brownies
1/2 cup unsalted butter
3 ounces semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup mascarpone cheese, softened
3 large eggs, at room-temperature
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt

Ganache
6 ounces best-quality semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
6 tablespoons whipping cream
1 tablespoons unsalted butter

Melt butter and chocolate in a double boiler over low heat. Once butter and chocolate are melted remove from heat. Mix sugar and cocoa powder in a separate bowl and add to chocolate mixture. Whisk in eggs, cheese and vanilla. Stir in flower and salt. Pour into buttered 8" square glass pan. Bake at 375 for about 45 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool brownies in pan.

Place finely chopped chocolate in a bowl. Heat cream and butter in a small saucepan. Bring just to a boil and then pour over chopped chocolate. Stir until all chocolate has melted. Pour hot ganache over brownies. Cool in the fridge until ganache has hardened.