Orange Dark Chocolate Brownies with Orange Blossom Cream / Prokofiev's "Love of Three Oranges"

Our favorite little Italian restaurant in Hollywood serves what might be the most exquisite dessert on earth. (Vivoli's "Mattonellina di Cioccolatto" is essentially a silky, dense dark chocolate terrine covered with a light orange syrup and candied orange peel.) Several days ago, I found myself craving the dark chocolatey, fudgey, orangey goodness of Vivoli's Mattonellina. Brownies proved to be the perfect guinea pig for my first chocolate + orange experiment.

 

Double Orange Dark Chocolate Brownies with Orange Blossom Whipped Cream

Recipe loosely adapted from Earthbound Farm Organic Farmstand

20 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips

2 sticks unsalted butter

1 1/2 tbsp instant espresso powder

1 tbsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp orange extract

1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp unbleached all purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts or pecans

3 large eggs

1 cup plus 2 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp orange peel

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

Line a 13 x 9 x 2-inch baking pan with foil. Generously butter or spray the foil. 

Melt the chocolate and butter in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until melted and smooth. Add the espresso powder, vanilla, and orange extract and stir to blend. Cool the mixture for 15 minutes. (You'll be adding eggs later, and don't want to accidentally cook them!)

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the nuts and orange peel; toss to coat evenly. 

Whisk the eggs and sugar in a large bowl until just blended. Add in the cooled chocolate mixture and stir until just blended. Add in the flour mixture and, again, stir until just blended. (Overbeating will result in deflated brownies.) Pour the mixture into the foil-lined pan.

Bake the brownies for 35 to 40 minutes, or until a tester inserted in the middle comes out with moist crumbs attached. Cool the brownies completely in the pan and stick them in the refrigerator for 6 hours. (Eating them sooner is definitely ok; just know that the texture is so fudgey that they won't hold together in your hand, and need to be refrigerated for 6 hours to properly congeal). Keep chilled. 

To make the orange blossom whipped cream: in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat 1/2 cup of cream with a few tablespoons of powdered sugar (to your taste) and one tablespoon of orange blossom water. 

{Why no, doctor; nothing is wrong with this picture}

{Adding in the espresso powder and extracts created beautiful swirls}

{Fresh out of the oven. Should you fail to resist the urge to chill these before testing, I won't blame you}

{Somebody call animal cruelty!}

For a musical pairing, enjoy Sergei Prokofiev's "Love of Three Oranges." The opera is based on an Italian fairytale, in which an evil witch curses a prince with an obsession for three oranges. He finds two oranges and opens them; beautiful fairy princesses emerge, but quickly die of thirst. He opens the third orange and falls in love with the fairy princess inside. It's strange, absurd, surreal, and beautiful in the way that most fairytales are. Musically speaking, it's written neo-classically - meaning taking classic ideas and giving them a modern, sophisticated, playful twist. (Sort of like the addition of three oranges to a classic brownie recipe.) Enjoy!