Chocolate Mascarpone Brownies

These are the brownies that we made for Lou's birthday cake. I am not a huge fan of chocolate but these brownies were really good.

Brownies

1 cup of unsalted butter
3 ounces of the best quality semi-sweet chocolate (I used IGA semi-sweet chocolate chips)
1/2 cup of cocoa powder
1/2 cup of mascarpone cheese, softened (Yes, I was able to find mascarpone cheese at IGA)
3 large eggs, at room-temperature
2 tsp of pure vanilla extract ( I used imitation vanilla)
1/2 cup of flour
a/4 tsp of salt

Ganache Topping

6 ounces of the best quality semi-sweet chocolate (For this part I used IGA chocolate chips)
6 tbsp of whipping cream
3 tsp of unsalted butter

Directions

1. Preheat oven at 325 F. Have a 8-inch square cake pan already buttered.
2. First, start by making brownie part. Take a small saucepan and melt the butter. Take the chocolate chips place them into a mixing bowl. Then pour the hot butter over the chocolate chips. Let stand for 30 seconds and stir until the chocolate is completely melted.
3. Sift in the sugar and the cocoa powder.
4. With a wooden soon, beat in the mascarpone, eggs and vanilla. Mix until smooth.
5. Slowly, fold the flour and the salt into the batter.
6. Pour the batter into the already buttered 8-inch pan. Make sure the batter is spread evenly across the pan.
7. Place pan into preheated oven and bake for 45-50 mins. Or until toothpick comes out clean.
8. Place pan on a cooling rack and let brownies cool for 15 mins. While the brownies are cooling start making the ganache.
9. Place chocolate chips into a mixing bowl. In a small saucepan, bring the cream and the butter just bellow the boiling point.
10. Pour the hot cream-butter mixture over the chocolate chips and let it stand for 30 secs. Then stir mixture until smooth and spread over the brownies. Make sure the ganache is warm when you spread over the brownies.
11. Don't cut into the brownies until the ganache has firmed up.