For these brownies, I used John's Favorite Brownies recipe from the Scharffen Berger website. This recipe yields brownies that are moist and chewy when you first bit into them, but also feel like they melt in your mouth due to the high chocolate content.
Start by assembling 6 ounces (170 g) 70% cacao content chocolate (could be marked "dark" or "bittersweet"), 6 ounces (170 g) butter, 1 cup (125 g) all-purpose flour, 1-1/2 cup (300 g) granulated sugar, 3 large eggs, and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract.Preheat the oven to 325°F (160°C). Butter a 9x13-inch pan. The pan can either be left as is, or dusted with flour or cocoa powder to help the brownies release after baking.
Break the chocolate into chunks. Cut the butter up and place both the chocolate and the butter into a double boiler or a metal bowl set on top of a pot with simmering water. Chocolate melts fairly easily, but can seize and burn when heated too high. Melting it over steam is an easy way to keep the temperature at a moderate level. Be careful not to introduce steam into the chocolate because too much water can also cause the melted chocolate to seize.
Stir gently while the chocolate and the butter melt to help even melting. When all the chocolate and butter have melted, turn off the heat but keep the bowl over the hot water to keep the mixture warm and easy to work with. Stir to completely mix the butter and chocolate together.
Add the sugar to the chocolate and stir in.
Lightly beat the eggs and the vanilla extract together. Add the eggs and vanilla extract to the mixture and stir and fold until the eggs are blended into the chocolate. This step takes a little longer than the others because the egg will seem to try its best to stay separate from the chocolate. Using fast strokes to mix in the egg in the center of the bowl followed by a folding action to bring more egg into the center of the bowl works best for me. You also don't have to worry about the eggs curdling because the melted chocolate isn't that hot. Usually, when you introduce eggs to a hot liquid, you want to temper the eggs first (adding a little of the hot liquid to the eggs to help gradually bring the temperature of the eggs up) to prevent getting bits of scrambled eggs in your mix. With melted chocolate, this isn't a problem because the chocolate usually doesn't get hot enough.
Add the flour to the batter and stir until all the flour is integrated. If desired, up to one cup of chopped nuts can be stirred in with the flour.
Pour the batter into the buttered (and floured) baking pan. Using a smaller pan (such as an 8-inch square) will produce thicker and chewier brownies. The baking time may need to be adjusted to achieve the desired texture.
The batter will be fairly thick, so you may need to help spread it with a spatula. Place the baking pan on a rack in the center position of the oven and bake for 35 minutes.
To check if the brownie is done, insert a toothpick into the center of the brownie. It should come with with brownie crumbs on it and no batter. (If your toothpick comes up clean, then you might have over baked it. Remove, cool, cut, and call them Chocolate Brownie Cakes.) Let the brownies cool in the pan before cutting them into 2-inch (5 cm) squares. Because these brownies have a tendency to stick to your knife as you cut, use a little bit of (melted) butter on the blade to keep the brownie from sticking. If any chocolate does start to stick, wash the knife and reapply butter. If you don't, then more and more chocolate will stick to the knife and you'll end up tearing whole chunks of brownie up as you slice.Dark Chocolate Brownies (makes 24 squares)
| Preheat oven to 325°F (160°C) and butter a 9x13-in. baking pan | |||||
| 6 oz. (170 g) 70% cacao chocolate | melt in double boiler | stir in | stir in | stir in | bake 325°F (160°C) for 35 min. |
| 6 oz. (170 g) butter | |||||
| 1-1/2 cup (300 g) granulated sugar | |||||
| 3 large eggs | lightly beat | ||||
| 1 tsp. (5 mL) vanilla extract | |||||
| 1 cup (125 g) all-purpose flour | |||||
I'm a music student on a budget (gadzooks!) and have been searching for some time for a brownie recipe that substitutes cocoa for (often expensive) chocolate. Has anyone found a recipe that's satisfactory? Obviously the same taste cannot be had, but surely someone must have figured out some decent ratios...
Cheers. Eat well.
Overcook the brownies just slightly so that they're firmer. Then use a cookie cutter to create small 1 to 1.5-inch round brownie bites, place them on long candy sticks, and serve them with a chocolate fondue (melt 12oz chocolate with 1/2cup heavy cream).
You could substitute cocoa powder for the chocolate required in your brownie recipes using this formula that I found at http://www.cookies-in-motion.com
For every ounce of unsweetened chocolate, use 3 tablespoons of cocoa and 1 tablespoon of either vegetable shortening or butter.
I tried it and could not detect any difference in quality.
The reason being that chocolate is basically cocoa powder and cocoa butter which is a fat. So if you replace it with its separate components, there shouldn't be any significant difference in taste and flavor, hopefully.
Happy Baking,
http://www.cookies-in-motion.com
Some cayenne powder works great, as does many other chile varieties. Try what you're willing to go for.
Yes, that's a great tip. To make this even easier, you can line baking pan with a sheet of parchment paper that is long enough to overhang the sides. After baking and cooling, pull up on the ends and lift the brownie out and onto a cutting board. Use a pizza cutter and section away!
I am pre-diabetic on a hypoglycemic diet so I substituted Splenda for sugar and used whole wheat flour 50% and regular flour 50%. I added 1 1/2 cups pecans and 1 tsp of cayenne pepper.
My mixture looked dryer than yours, more like cookie dough. I used a spoon to flatten it.
They turned out a little dry and crumbly but good. I thought the raw mixture tasted more chocolatley than the cooked brownies. Next time I'll use 8 squares.
Melt 1 stick unsalted butter,
add 1/2 cup cocoa and stir until smooth.
Remove from heat and allow to cool for a few minutes.
Add 2 eggs, one at a time.
Add 1 cup sugar, 1/4 cup flour, 1 teaspoon vanilla and pinch of salt.
Add 1 cup nuts of choice.
Pour into into greased 8x8 pan and bake 40 min at 325 degrees.
Do not overbake.
-kayenne
They came out pretty well. They needed less baking time. I baked 32 min at it was about 4 minutes too long.
I think using 2 eggs will result in a more chewy texture that I prefer (as someone already mentioned)
Over all I appreciate finding this recipe! Thanks Very much :)
Tracy
Thank you for posting this recipe. It's not easy to make American brownie recipes when you live in Europe, where there's no unsweetened chocolate. But we do have lots of high cocoa-content semisweet chocolate, so this recipe is perfect for us.
They came out very well. I only baked them 25 min., but that seemed enough. Also after melting the chocolate and butter, I mixed in the rest of the ingredients without keeping the bowl over hot water (I was being helped by 3-year old girls, so I didn't want to take any risks!).
Since the said 3-year olds and I had a difference of opinions regarding the desirability of adding nuts, I made half with nuts, half without: I spread a thin layer of the batter all over the pan, then sprinkled chopped pecans on half of it, and covered the whole surface with the rest of the batter, being careful not to mix nuts into the children's section. This worked well.
They came out fudgy and a bit chewy yet crunchy near the edges. I was wondering why the sugar isn't beaten with the eggs: wouldn't that make for a shinier crust? Also the interesting thing is the brownies weren't too sweet the day I made them, but by the second day they tasted really quite sweet. But still delicious, the best I've made so far, thank you! (The three-year olds agree).
Astrid
www.lacerise.blogspot.com
However, I noticed that half-way during the baking, the top surface of the brownies started to crack. I was using dark colored baking tray and lined it with aluminium foil. Is this normal ? What setting should I adjust to prevent the surface from cracking ?
1 cup is 250ml but....
How much is one cup of onions? potatoes? broccoli?
Not 250grams of it right?
How do I know how much of every one cup measurement do I put into my cooking?
Btw, AWESOME site! I've experimented with a few dishes that turn out BEAUTIFULLY. Keep up the fantastic work!
How much is one cup of onions? potatoes? broccoli?
Not 250grams of it right?
How do I know how much of every one cup measurement do I put into my cooking?
In the U.S., most recipes are written with only volumetric quantities for ingredients. This is probably because most families in the U.S. don't have scales in their kitchen. It is also a real pain for someone running a website like Cooking For Engineers where volumetric measurements are pretty much useless for over half my readership. To handle volume to mass conversion, I find myself utilizing two tools: my digital scales and the USDA Nutrient Standards.
Some coversions I use so often that I have memorized: 1 cup sugar = 200 g, 1 cup packed brown sugar = 220g, 1 cup sifted flour = 125 g (unsifted can weigh up to 160 g and who knows what some recipe books assume you use - Cooking For Engineers always presents recipes with sifted flour measurements).
One proviso, I always use Mexican vanilla....if you have access to this, please try it too....the difference it makes in any baked good is amazing.
Abo Gato
Deeeelicious.
-JUST 1 THING DAT I ADDED EXTRA COZ I NEVER WANTD 2 CHANCES WAS A PINCH OF COOKING SODA, & THE BAKING TIME EXCEEDED TO 60MINS (AS AFTR 30 MIN IT WAS ALL LIQUID SO I WENT ON INCREASIN TIME BY 10 MINS EACH N FINALLY AFTER 60 MIN IT WAS SET) @ 160' C..
THANK YOU AGAIN..
TAKE CARE
GOD BLESS
Every time I have a dinner with other people in which each one has to bring something, I cook the brownie and I always get the best appraisals.
All of the ingredients can be tweaked by 25% or so in either direction to get the particular sort of brownies you like.
I think I'll err on the side of caution and throw in a half teaspoon of baking powder to be on the safe side
Note that a double boiler is very 20th century :) A microwave is the far superior modern way to prepare melted chocolate for this kind of thing.
I've made many chocolate creme brulee's that way, it's a snap.
Just toss the butter and chocolate broken up into a container, hit it with 10 second increments of hi power in the microwave repeatedly until it starts to look like a gooey mess but not so far as to melt it completely, then stir it to complete the melting.
I also experimented with chocolate and lime flavoured brownies. The lime flavour is quite interesting in a brownie, but on reflection I think brownies should be chocolate through and through.
Thanks for the gorgeously illustrated recipe Michael, you've made me want to go make more brownies :)
These are alot like the brownies I made as a kid, but I no longer have that recipe. I love melting the chocolate, and adding the flour, plus LICKING THE SPOON!
Thanks again for your wonderful recipes!
This is an easy to do, delicious desert. Thank you! :)
Add 2 tht i'm an engineer nd due 2 my studies nevr gt d time 2 entr d Kitchen.
Bt my kid sis happens 2 b my opposite. She tym nd again prods me 2 cook with and for her.
So here i was all set 2 make anothr often repeated disaster of my life -- Brownie... until i happen to come across this site.
This recipe is excellent and it does turn out to be a success.I have made it 3 times in the past 3 weeks.
Also i loved the easy 2 understand format of this site. A must-see site for all the analytical minds!;)
Happy Cooking Folks
Kit :)
Just a question, how do we ensure that the bottom does not get stuck. I did butter the pan and floured it but was unable to overturn the pan and get the brownie complete into another plate.
If using more butter with a light coating of flour doesn't solve the problem, your only recourse (without trying a different pan) is to have a sacrificial piece that you scoop out first and then you should be able to perfectly lift all the other pieces out of the pan.
My brownies just finished baking a minute ago. But the top of the brownies cracked like a chocolate cake would. Anybody knows why? i followed the recipe I got from www.community.livejournal.com/bakebakebake-few ppl tried it and their brownies looked so awesome, and baked at 180degreeC Ive no idea why my brownies always crack :( Its happened a few times alrd, Ill try to tuen the temp down when it cracks bt im afraid low temp would not produce a moist brownie, bt a dry one
If using more butter with a light coating of flour doesn't solve the problem, your only recourse (without trying a different pan) is to have a sacrificial piece that you scoop out first and then you should be able to perfectly lift all the other pieces out of the pan.
Or i suggest buttering the pan then layering a layer of baking paper. It always works for me.
My brownies just finished baking a minute ago. But the top of the brownies cracked like a chocolate cake would. Anybody knows why?
Months late on a reply, but I just read a different recipe that said this happened when they used a mixer. Mixing by hand yielded the normal brownie tops. Hope that helps.
mine are currently in the oven and smell great. I live in the UK and used green and blacks cocoa 75% dark chocolate. ( I noticed that one of the posters mentioned it was hard to get the right chocolate here) Its also fair trade which is obviously a bonus.
Does the 160°C stated apply to fan assisted ovens too? or is that for normal ovens?? If the later , this may explain why some people needed to cook for less time and why others experienced the crack....
thanks again xx
All temperatures are for ovens without fans.
Thank you!
:)
I added the coffee to one of two batches and could taste the difference. It really does intensify the chocolate flavour.
Thanks a stack!
:)
Right on on the website. I love the fact that it assumes that the practitioner is starting from "scratch" ...that is we menfolk frequently do not have the basics folded in to our cosmology at our parent's knees.
Thanks for the presentation of your recipes. Very analytical indeed.
Thank you!
-K
Someone mentioned chipotle in a brownie, which is of course a smoked jalapeno. Beyond nuts or chilis, another thing which goes well into chocolate is bacon. I'm unsure about black pepper in chocolate, but a nice smoked bacon would work. So would a number of the sausages (probably avoiding the ones with black pepper). Citrus zest will go into chocolate nicely. It would be interesting to try a chiffinade (sp?) of peppermint or spearmint leaves. Especially if the bain marie idea works.
But, a nice website. Thanks for sharing.
I am trying to remember exactly what I did so I can make them again to pay back a friend who is doing me a favor. I think I doubled the recipe then added about a tablespoon of each spice, cooked up maybe six pieces of bacon very crispy and crumbled it in and substituted about a third of the butter with bacon grease.
(For those of you who wanted some idea of how to proportion the spicy and bacony ingredients.) I'll check back after I make the new batch and let you know what I end up doing this time and how they turn out.