Swirled Mascarpone Brownies with Hazelnuts

by Heidi Published: May 7, 2014 Updated: Aug 30, 2018

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Me and my mom. The love of chocolate runs in our DNA.

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Maybe she passed her love of the cacao to me through her umbilical cord. Or maybe she transferred her chocolate loving cravings to me with each chocolate shake we’d get at Arctic Circle with a side of burgers and fries.

Either way, when it comes to dessert, chocolate is our first bite of choice. And it’s just one reason we’re both partial to super rich, fudgey, chocolate loaded brownies.

It all comes down to flavor. While some think the best flavor come from big amounts of big ingredients, it’s really the little guys who coax out the intensity of the flavors behind the scenes. Small wonder, huh?

While chocolate and mascarpone are the big names in this brownie recipe, but the nuance that binds them together is one star ingredient: vanilla.

Vanilla, the Flavor Booster

McCormick’s Pure Vanilla Extract pulls its weight when it comes to flavoring. Vanilla mellows and sweetens the bitterness of chocolate. Vanilla gives creamy mascarpone a little more personality.

Maybe I should dab some behind my ears. Maybe vanilla would do the same for me?

When my mom stopped by for a visit, she pulled up a seat and we chatted chocolate and taste tested brownies as she sipped on green tea. Maybe that’s the combination that makes this 7 decade living lady look like she’s been skinny dipping in the fountain of youth.

Bingo! I’ve find the ultimate anti-aging secret, brownies eaten with green tea. Thanks mom!

McCormick’s Flavor of Together

This year McCormick celebrates its 125th anniversary and they’re marking this major milestone by inspiring flavorful conversation. Flavor of Together will be a yearlong initiative with a goal to share 1.25 million (get it? 125th anniversary = 1.25 million) stories about how flavor unites and defines people across the globe.

For every Flavor of Together story shared on any of McCormick’s websites or social media, McCormick will donate $1, up to $1.25 million (get it?) to United Way to help feed those in need.

Share your own story on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram using the hashtag #flavorstory and help make McCormick’s 125th anniversary + 1.25 million stories = $1.25 million big bucks. Get it?

Now that’s 1.25 million reasons to interview your mom and tell the world about it.

I pulled my interviewing skillz out of the back closet and went to task, asking about my mom’s flavor story and why she’s been such a lover of chocolate, and why does it run so happily in the family?

“Really good chocolate chip cookies and my fudge. Those are my two weaknesses.”

“Maybe it’s because I grew up loving milk chocolate. I love the way you put a piece in your mouth and it fills your whole mouth with goodness.”

“I like a plain old fashioned brownie with pecans—it has to have nuts—with just a sprinkle of powdered sugar. Grandma always put just a dusting of powdered sugar. That’s the way I’ve always loved them. Just like my hamburgers, I like my things the way they’ve always been.”

My mom. She’s not only a beauty, she’s smart too.

This recipe is based on a basic brownie (mom, you’d love it) I’ve had in a cookbook my sweet for sweets husband gave me years ago: Nigella Lawson’s How to Be a Domestic Goddess. I made her basic brownie recipe a few weeks ago when Smudge and I had a brownie bug.

You guys really liked it on Instagram so I thought it would be a great base to play swirlie in. A tub of mascarpone, a little thickener and more vanilla (yes!) and it was time to get our swoosh on.

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