Nutella Brownies

I had leftover mascarpone cheese and needed to use it up so I made these sinfully delicious brownies!

 

Measure 1/3 cup of the best bittersweet chocolate you have.

Chop the chocolate into tiny pieces.

Melt one cup butter in the microwave.

Add the chopped chocolate to the butter and stir until all of the chocolate is melted.

In a separate bowl sift together 1 cup sugar and 1/2 cocoa powder.

In yet another bowl add 1/2 cup mascarpone cheese, 

3 eggs, and 2 teaspoons vanilla.

I tried mixing the wet ingredients with a wooden spoon... big joke!

Using your HAND MIXER combine the wet ingredients.

So, now you have your melted chocolate/butter, sugar/cocoa and wet ingredients.

Add the cocoa/sugar mix to the wet ingredients and combine.

Pour in the chocolate/butter next.

Combine.

Now sift in 1/2 cup flour and 1/4 teaspoon salt.

Mix until combine. Set aside.

Place 3/4 cup hazelnuts in a skillet.

Roast on low to medium heat stirring every minute or so. You will know they are done withe skins turn darker and you the smell of toasting hazelnuts compels you to reach into the pan and try one while it's till a million degrees!

Using a paper towel rub the skins off. If a few skins remain it's ok. 

Reserve 1/4 cup for garnish.

Chop 1/2 cup of the toasted hazelnuts.

Fold into the batter.

Pour the batter into a buttered 8X8 dish. 

Say that 10 times fast!

Bake at 325 for 45 minutes. When the brownies came out of the oven the edges had puffed up which was fine by me but these were going to be for a group so I wanted it to be nicer looking. So, I removed the edges and placed the 'pretty' part of the brownie on a cutting board.

Don't worry the edges were devoured later!

Spread 3/4 cup nutella all over the COOLED (very important!) brownies.

Top with the reserved 1/4 cup chopped toasted hazelnuts.

This recipe made exactly 16 servings, trust me the smaller servings go a long ways! The brownie got better after the following day so these would be great to make a day ahead. 

Enjoy!