Black and White Brownies

 Can one ever have too many brownie recipes? I think not! There are SO many twists and variations, it seems that the possibilities are endless. So anytime I happen upon a new brownie something, I'm all in. I mean, with that rich fudgy texture, chocolate or not, I'm absolutely a fan. Basically, whenever I want to whip up a quick homemade something, brownies are my go-to. They're great for a party, sure, but they're also great when you just want to bring a home baked smile to someone.
 When I first began my search for a new brownie, I couldn't decide whether I wanted to make the usual chocolate brownie or a white chocolate blondie version. Then I found this recipe and of course quickly decided that this was the best of both worlds. As always, I can never leave well enough alone, and once again, I tweaked the recipe a little here and there. They turned out rich and chewy and fudgy and OH SO GOOD! If you'd like to bring a smile to someone, I highly recommend trying them! Btw, they also make GREAT gifts for anyone in your family who has just left for college! There's nothing like receiving a little taste of home in the mail, is there? Boom.



3/4 cup butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tbs melted butter
1/2 tsp instant coffee granules
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
1/4 cup flour



 Heat oven to 350ºF. Lightly grease 9x13-inch baking pan, or line with parchment paper. Set aside. Beat 3/4 cup butter, white sugar, and brown sugar together in a bowl until light and fluffy; beat in eggs and vanilla extract. Sift 2 1/4 cups flour, baking powder, and salt together in a separate bowl; stir flour mixture into creamed butter mixture until batter is smooth. Divide batter into two bowls.
Stir cocoa powder and 1 tablespoon melted butter together in a bowl; stir into one of the bowls of batter. Dissolve coffee granules in 1 tsp hot water. Stir it into chocolate batter along with semisweet chocolate chips. Pour into the prepared baking pan.
Toss white chocolate chips with remaining 1/4 cup of flour, then stir into the remaining bowl of batter. Carefully spread evenly over the chocolate batter. Sprinkle additional white chocolate chips over the top. Bake until edges begin to pull away from the sides of the pan, 20 to 30 minutes. Cool completely before cutting into bars.


Tips:
The batters will be VERY thick and hard to spread. So we have a few options: You could spray your hand and use your fingers to press the sticky dough into the pan. Or you could do the same thing with the back of a spoon. Or you could dollop tablespoonfuls of the blonde batter over the chocolate batter and then use an offset spatula to spread it across the top. Or you could abandon then whole top/bottom idea altogether and just swirl the blonde batter into the chocolate. All of the above will work!
Btw, the instant coffee dissolved in a tiny bit of water is one of my little tweaks. Adding that little bit of coffee always makes chocolate taste more chocolatey!