Mexican Chilli Brownies with Cinnamon and All Spice

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Delicious, fudgy, intense chocolate squares infused with cinnamon, allspice, and ancho grande chilli all topped with a layer of salted milk chocolate, cinnamon and chilli flakes. These incredible brownies will blow your mind! Not literally – you can’t really taste the chilli but it adds a delicious warmth and tingle in your mouth whilst the cinnamon and all spice bring sweet and woody tones to the table. The layers of flavour and texture with the surprise zing from a flake of chilli put these brownies firmly in the ‘adults only’ category and certainly Mr Daffodil (aka ‘he who doesn’t like sweet things’) cannot get enough of them.

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The flavours in these brownies make them a perfect end to a Mexican inspired meal, indeed any spicy food, but quite frankly we are happy to eat them at any time of the day! They are based on my daffodil Brownies – Core Recipe with just a few adjustments:

• I added cinnamon, all-spice, ancho grande chilli and chilli flakes to the cake batter.
• I topped the brownies with salted milk chocolate and sprinkled this with the spices above, extra cinnamon and sugar.
• I used a higher proportion of caster sugar to soft brown sugar in the cake batter
• I reduced the cocoa slightly in the brownie batter
• Altering the sugars and reducing the cocoa, allow the spices included in these brownies to shine.

How to make Mexican Chilli Brownies with Cinnamon and All Spice

This recipe is adapted from my Daffodil Brownies – Core Recipe. For further brownie ideas and inspiration, see here.

Collect all your ingredients together and line the baking tin:

1. In order to guarantee soft and fudgy brownies, it is important to use the correct size tin – in this case it is a 20cm/8inch square tin. If your tin is larger the depth of your cake batter will be less and the cake will cook more quickly. Equally if the tin is smaller, your cake batter will be deeper and cook more slowly.
2. Sit the tin on greaseproof paper making sure the paper is large enough to line the tin, come up the sides and have a little overhang.
3. Cut out the corners of the paper so it will fit easily into the tin
4. Fold the paper from corner to corner so the size of the centre of the paper matches the base of the tin. Slot inside the tin.

Brownie Ingredients:

• unsalted butter, in cubes
• dark chocolate, 70% cocoa solids, broken into pieces
• soft brown sugar
• caster sugar
• large eggs
• fine salt
• plain/all-purpose flour, sieved
• cocoa, sieved
• instant coffee powder, sieved
• ground cinnamon
• all spice
• chilli flakes
• ancho grande chilli (or cayenne pepper)
• milk chocolate

Topping ingredients:

• some spice mix from above
• cinnamon
• caster sugar
• chill flakes

Make those brownies:

1. Combine the cinnamon, all spice, ancho grande chilli powder and chilli flakes.
2. Remove ½ teaspoon for the topping.
3. Chop the butter into squares and place in a microwave safe bowl with the chopped chocolate. Melt in a microwave or a bain marie or and mix until smooth. (See Recipe Notes for details.)
4. Meanwhile put the sugars, eggs and salt in a mixing bowl and whisk with an electric whisk until thick and creamy. This will take around 3 minutes.
5. Pour the chocolate and butter into the eggs and sugar, whilst whisking, and mix thoroughly with the electric whisk until smooth and glossy.
6. Put a sieve over the bowl and add the flour, cocoa, coffee, cinnamon, all-spice, chilli flakes, ancho grande chilli powder (or cayenne).
7. Sift directly over the cake batter. Tip anything that doesn’t fit through the sieve (most likely just the chilli flakes) directly onto the cake mix.
8. Fold until completely mixed in but be careful not to over-mix at this stage.
9. Transfer to your baking tin and level the surface, making sure the cake batter goes all the way into the corners.
10. Cook in the oven for 20 – 25 minutes, depending on how squidgy you like the centre to be. It will carry on cooking when you take it out of the oven so bear this in mind. (I cook mine for 23 minutes in London and 24 minutes in Switzerland.)
11. Leave to cool before adding the chocolate topping.

This gives me a slightly crispy top but a gorgeous gooey centre. The cake will be slightly risen and cracked around the edges (see the pictures below) but the centre will feel quite soft. Remember the cake will continue to cook after you have taken it out of the oven. 

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Make the salted chocolate topping:

1. Melt the chocolate, butter and salt and mix until smooth.
2. Tip onto the cooled brownies and level the surface.
3. Use a fork to create a ridged pattern.

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Mix the sugar and spice to sprinkle over the chocolate:

1. Combine the sugar, cinnamon and spices (from the brownie mix) but not the chilli flakes. Stir to mix well.
2. Sprinkle evenly over the melted chocolate.
3. Finally sprinkle the chilli flakes evenly over the surface. Leave the chocolate to set.

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Cut into squares:

Cut into squares as soon as the chocolate has hardened. (NB The chocolate will not harden to chocolate solid because of the addition of butter.)

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Made this recipe?

If you make this recipe, do please tag me on instagram @daffodil_kitchen. You could also leave a comment in the box directly below the recipe.