These Chocolate Mascarpone Brownies are a truly decadent and delicious brownie recipe.
How to make Chocolate Mascarpone Brownies:
You’ll be melting butter and then pouring over chopped semisweet chocolate in a bowl. The hot butter will melt the chocolate. Then you’ll whisk that together until nice and smooth. Next you’ll mix in sugar and cocoa powder, then mascarpone cheese, eggs, vanilla, flour and salt. You’ll want to make sure the batter is well combined… and that there isn’t any residual butter swimming around in the batter before pouring it into a pan to bake.
What is Mascarpone Cheese?
It’s a fresh Italian cream cheese (not like USA cream cheese) sold in a tub. You should be able to find it in the specialty cheese section of your local market. Trader Joe’s also carries it, and you’ll find it for a good price there! If you don’t have access to mascarpone cheese, there are suggestions for how to substitute here.
After the brownies are baked, you’ll prepare the ganache frosting (a mix of chocolate, cream and butter). It’s simple to make. You’ll just heat up the cream and then add the chocolate and butter to the hot cream and let it sit.
Then you just whisk it together until it’s nice and smooth and pour it over your pan of brownies. It’s a thick layer of frosting that finishes these off and makes these Chocolate Mascarpone Brownies so decadent and wonderful!
Give the chocolate ganache a chance to set, and then they’ll be easier to cut. You can see in the photo below that the frosting does set when it has been given a chance to cool.
The texture of these brownies can be described as rich and dense. They might be a little bit different in texture than what you’re imagining most brownies are like, but they’re a total delight. They are so delicious and chocolatey and rich!
Here are a few more brownie recipes you might like to try:
- Chocolate Chip Walnut Brownies
- Peanut Butter Cup Brownies
- Pretzel Toffee Chip Brownies
- Mint Chip Brownies
- Salted Caramel Brownies
- Triple Decker Brownies
- Caramel Pecan Brownies
- Chocolate Fudge Brownies
Chocolate Mascarpone Brownies
Ingredients
BROWNIES:
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
- 3 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
- 1 cup granulated white sugar
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/2 cup mascarpone cheese, at room temperature
- 3 large eggs, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup all purpose flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
GANACHE FROSTING:
- 6 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
- 6 tablespoons whipping cream
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces
Instructions
PREPARE THE BROWNIES:
- Preheat oven to 325°F. Butter an 8-inch square pyrex pan.
- Place the chopped chocolate in a mixing bowl; set aside. In a small glass bowl, melt the butter in a microwave, just until melted- don't let it cook and bubble (if no microwave, melt quickly on the stove instead). Pour the butter over the chocolate and let stand for 30 seconds. Stir until the chocolate is completely melted and the butter is well incorporated. Sift in the sugar and cocoa powder.
- With a wooden spoon, beat in the mascarpone, eggs and vanilla, mixing until smooth. Gently fold in the flour and salt.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan and spread evenly. Bake 45 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Place the pan on a cooling rack and let the brownies cool 10 to 15 minutes while you make the ganache.
PREPARE THE GANACHE FROSTING:
- Place the chopped chocolate in a mixing bowl. In a small saucepan, bring the cream and butter to just below boiling point, over medium heat. Pour this hot mixture over the chocolate and let stand for 30 seconds, then stir until smooth. Pour the ganache over the brownies while still warm, and spread to cover evenly.
- Let the ganache firm-up before cutting. It's best to refrigerate them until quite firm. Once the ganache is firm and the brownies have been cut, they do not need to be kept in the refrigerator.
Notes
- *Look for tubs of mascarpone cheese (like the cream cheese tubs) in the gourmet cheese section of your grocery store- or in gourmet markets. Trader Joes carried mascarpone cheese at a good price (as well as good quality chocolate bars.)
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Made these tonight, best brownie I’ve ever had.
The frosting on the 2 pictures look different. One looks like a glaze and the other looks like it’s about 1/4″ of frosting. Which is correct? Thank you.
The photos are all of the same recipe. The photo below the recipe is an old photo when the recipe was made in a smaller pan.
I misplaced my recipe for these… Strange I added 1 cup butter, but poured 1/2 cup from pan when I brought it out of oven.. way too much butter.
I’ve made these once, and loved them. Have you ever tried adding an extra third of each ingredient for the ganache? In the picture, it looks much thicker than it comes out. I also might try the brownie as a base for chocolate cheesecake cherry brownies.
I haven’t tried that… it all depends on the pan you use. If you use a smaller pan, the icing will be thicker!
Sounds yummy! I may give it a try when the price of mascarpone cheese drops, alot! Is there a substitute for mascarpone cheese?
Here’s what I found on the Internet- but I haven’t tried it: Cream cheese makes a great substitute for mascarpone. There are two methods to substitute mascarpone: Substitute 1 cup of mascarpone with 1 cup of a cream cheese and whipping cream mixture. To make this mixture, use 1/4 cup of cream for every 8 oz.
I loved this recipe. I followed the directions for the brownies. but made them gluten free and I added 1 tsp. of vanilla extract and 1/2 tsp. of espresso powder to the ganache. They are wonderful! Thank you for sharing this recipe!