The Perfect Brownie
Gooey, chewy, fudgy brownies….what’s not to love, right? The trouble is finding that perfect brownie.
Most brownies I’ve had are very cake like. They taste good, but it doesn’t satisfy that craving for something decadent. After eating mediocre brownies for years, from box mixes to homemade, I decided to create my own recipe. The process took about a year of experimenting.
First, I researched. I looked at over 100 brownie recipes to see how similar they all were. Generally speaking, they consisted of butter, sugar, flour, vanilla, cocoa powder, and eggs. A lot of recipes used chocolate chips. Some recipes used oil instead of butter. Other recipes called for salt. A few recipes added coffee or milk.
After the research phase came the cooking phase. I took 10 different recipes that looked good and made them all. Each was good, none were what I wanted. Next I averaged them all together to see what would happen. Terrible. Don’t do this.
Next I went back to the research phase. What makes a brownie dense and fudgy? What makes it caramelized? What makes them sweet? After I figured out the science behind the brownie I was ready to start tweaking. I used my favorite of the 10 base brownie recipes and then began adjusting ingredients and ratios. Butter made the brownies more dense, and caramelized the sugar better than the oil. No chocolate chips, because those made them too sweet. Add milk to make the batter a little less thick.
After about 15-20 more batches, I had what I consider to be a perfect brownie. Fudgy. Chocolaty. Slightly Caramelized. The perfect amount of salt. A little chewy. Perfection.
Brownies also happen to be my mother’s favorite dessert. When I finally made her a pan of these, she ate almost the entire 9”x13” pan, sliver by sliver. As a result, these have the nickname of “crack brownies” in my family. Try them for yourself, if you dare:
Recipe (makes a 9”x13” pan)
Ingredients
266g (2 1/3 sticks) unsalted butter
565g (2 1/2 cups) sugar
150g (16 tbsp) cocoa powder - I like Hershey Special Dark.
3g (1/2 tsp) sea salt
1 TSP Vanilla Extract
261g (~4 large) eggs, cold
175g (1 cup) flour
2 TBSP Milk
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 325°F. Butter the sides of a 9x13-inch baking pan and line with parchment paper.
Combine the sugar, cocoa, flour and salt in a medium bowl and mix together with a whisk...make sure it is evenly blended.
In a separate bowl, beat the eggs, milk, and vanilla together and add to dry mixture.
Then melt and add the butter.
Whisk all the ingredients together and then pour into pan and spread evenly.
Bake until a metal knife plunged into the center emerges slightly moist with batter, 30-35 minutes. Give them at least 10 minutes to set, once removed from the oven, before you cut them.
Cut with a wet knife.