Ina Garten Says Coffee Makes Chocolate Desserts Better, So I Put It to the Test with Brownies

If you’re a Barefoot Contessa stan, you’re no stranger to Beatty’s Chocolate Cake, a layered masterpiece that’s among her most popular recipes. Former PureWow senior food editor Katherine Gillen once tested it herself and noted that the recipe calls for freshly brewed coffee in the batter *and* instant coffee powder in the chocolate buttercream.

The concept is that the bitterness of the coffee both tempers the sweetness of the other ingredients and amplifies the natural cocoa-y chocolate flavor of the dessert without making it taste like a hot mocha. You could apply the method to everything from cookies and cakes to puddings and, my favorite, brownies.

I prepared four batches of brownie mix: one without coffee, one with freshly brewed coffee, one with instant coffee powder/granules and one with espresso powder. I baked them according to package instructions, waited for them to cool, then tasted each type of brownie to compare.

For the batch with freshly brewed coffee, I substituted the water in the batter in equal parts. For the instant coffee and espresso powder batches, I added two teaspoons of the former and one teaspoon of the latter, respectively, to the mix.

Visually, the plain and brewed coffee batches were basically identical, while the instant coffee and instant espresso batches were slightly darker in color. All four batches were also indistinguishable in terms of texture. Taste is where things got interesting (although it’s important to note that none of these ingredients imparted a coffee flavor to the brownies; they only enhanced the chocolatiness):

• The brewed coffee batch was ever-so-slightly more robust in flavor than the plain batch, but the difference was negligible. I’m guessing a shot or two of hot espresso would’ve been more effective.
• The instant coffee batch was decidedly more chocolatey than the plain, and consequently had more of a homemade vibe.
• The instant espresso batch was the most nuanced of all. It tasted deeply chocolatey and had an underlying roast-y flavor that gave a from-scratch, bittersweet edge to the brownie. (FYI, espresso powder is made from darkly roasted coffee beans that have been ground, brewed, dried and ground again into powder for maximum concentration, according to King Arthur Baking Company.)

The Verdict

Coffee does enhance the chocolatey flavor of desserts (or at least boxed brownie mix). Drip works in a pinch, but it’s less predictable; its effectiveness relies on the strength of the coffee and the taste of the beans. Instant coffee and espresso are more dependable, and they require less labor to boot, since you can just add it to the dry ingredients instead of brewing a fresh pot. Instant espresso powder has the most noticeable impact without making the dessert taste like coffee.