Hey folks, when I say the word brownies,
what images does it conjure up?
Is it soft and cakey and crumby,
or is it dense and chewy and fudgy?
Whichever it is, we've got the recipe for you
Even if you picked the first one, we won't judge you for it.
Let's get down to Basics.
[Music]
So first up we'll address the cake in the room, the cakey brownies.
Courtesy of a recipe from King Arthur Flour.
Into the bowl of a stand mixer goes:
-About 2 1/2 cups of sugar
along with
-1 cup or 2 sticks of unsalted butter at room temperature
Which we are going to cream together using the paddle attachment.
Once a light, fluffy consistency has been reached,
we're going to combine some dry ingredients in a small bowl.
1 and a quarter cups of cocoa powder and a teaspoon of kosher salt
and a teaspoon of baking powder, which we're going to tiny whisk together
before adding to the bowl.
And mixing together tentatively, while we prepare our dry ingredients-
I mean eggs.
For this recipe, we're going with
four large eggs plus one large egg white.
Which we're going to add to the bowl
while our mixer mixes one at a time
Making sure it's fully incorporated before adding the next egg.
We're also going to add a half of cup of water.
Beat that on high speed until it is nice and creamy
and then, for the final ingredient, some flour.
One and a half cups of all-purpose added and
mixed minimally so as not to develop too much gluten.
This same sort of methodology you might employ
while making pancakes.
Just give that a few cursory folds
make sure that everybody is nice and incorporated
and then we're going to prepare our brownie pan
I like to rub the whole thing down with vegetable oil
and then line with parchment paper
And then we are dumping in and spreading evenly
our brownie batter, which we are then going to place
in a 350 degree Fahrenheit oven for 25 to 30 minutes
until it resembles a cake, like this one
and a toothpick, when inserted off-center
emerges cleanly over the few, dainty, moist crumbs,
still clinging to its wooden shaft.
Then, by the parchment paper, we are removing
the brownies from the brownie pan,
and allowing to cool completely on a wire rack
for at least one hour.
Just enough time to make the only thing that makes
cakey brownies worth eating, frosting.
Into the bowl of a stand mixer goes
one stick of soft butter,
two and a half cups of sifted powder sugar,
half a cup of cocoa powder,
and just enough milk to make things spreadable
between 1/3 to 2/3 cups.
Cream that on high speed for about one minute
until finger-licking delicious.
Once the brownies have complete cooled
we're going to remove them from the parchment paper
and frost them liberally, so that the recipients
of our brownies do not die of thirst
and, since we're going this far we might as well...
throw some sprinkles on there.
Rainbow colored only because chocolate
would just be redundant
and then you better head down to the break room
because it's Karen's birthday
and you only get cake if you sing
HR's birthday bylaws are perspicuous
and very strict.
Now, for all my trash talking
this is actually a pretty damn good brownie
even by cake standards.
It's still very moist and has a nice density,
I'm trying to catch my paper plate on fire,
it's not work-
there we go.
But if you couldn't tell already, I'm more of the
chewy, fudgy brownie type.
For this, we turn to America's Test Kitchen,
who recommends lining a brownie pan
with aluminum foil, and lubricating with non-stick spray.
Not quite sure how I feel about this, but let's give it a shot.
Go ahead and set that aside so into a large bowl we can combine:
1/3 of 1 cup of cocoa powder, 1 1/2 teaspoons of espresso powder.
As I have mentioned before, this won't make it taste like coffee, it's just gonna amp up the chocolate flavor.
As will 2 ounces of unsweetened, chopped chocolate.
To which we're going to add 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons of boiling water
Whisking until completely melted and incorporated.
Then while it's still warm,
We're adding 4 tablespoons of butter, letting that melt,
And then, an essential element to chewy brownies is oil
in this case, 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil.
Additionally, the ratio of eggs that we use:
In this case, 2 large eggs plus 2 egg yolks.
By this point, the mixture should have cooled significantly so go ahead and
throw the eggs in there and whisk to combine.
We're also going to add 1 teaspoon and 1/2 of vanilla extract.
Come on little guy, let's go. Teaspoon and a half
of vanilla extract
You can also add a teaspoon of espresso powder
if desired. We're going to whisk that together before adding
Two and one half cups of granulated sugar, preferably
to a slightly larger bowl, am I right?
Last but not least, once that's fully incorporated we are adding the flour
One and three quarter cups of All Purpose, you can mix this a bit more thoroughly
than the previous batch because we're not trying to get the same
tenderness that we would in a cakey brownie
Actually last but not least, 6 ounces of chopped
bittersweet chocolate, whole and melted chocolate
is essential for a fudgy brownie
Mix that until just combined, go ahead and pour into our prepared 9x13
brownie pan, and we're dropping this guy into a similarly
preheated 350 degree Fahrenheit oven
for
30 to 35 minutes until a tester emerges
virtually unscathed but with a little bit of goo still hanging to it
Then after allowing to cool one hour
in the pan we are removing by virtue of the foil and this is the only
step that
I didn't understand because there was significant stickage to the foil
despite all the non stick
spray that was used, which as always been my experience in
brownie making so if you ask me, stick with the parchment paper
Once we managed to get that out of there, as you can see
I've caused some significant damage to the surface integrity
But that doesn't stop this from being a majorly
delicious fudgy brownie with a truffle-like texture and a
subtle chew and while you will most certainly eat these
brownies in a single bite like what I'm doing here
What if you're like me and you like your brownies practically melting and with the texture
of chewing gum, well I got the recipe for you
Please bear in mind when we filmed this, I only made a half batch
so I'm going to narrate the correct amounts and you can just
follow along with the video for a visual reference, into a large bowl goes
one and three quarter cups or sugar, two sticks of melted butter
I'm also going to add a teaspoon and a half of espresso powder
One teaspoon of
vanilla extract and four eggs plus two egg yolks
Go ahead and give those a whisk and
to combine completely before adding one cup of cocoa powder and
half a cup of vegetable oil
I'm sorry I'm putting weird emphases in my
sentences, I'm having a long night; whisk that fairly to combine and then it's time to add my secret
weapon: bread flour. In addition to all
the other chew-inducing elements that we have in this recipe
bread flour is high in gluten
and will create
a chewier texture
before we add it we are whisking it
together with a teaspoon each of baking powder and kosher salt
and we are chopping
six ounces of bittersweet chocolate that we are
going to add to the mix
before adding the flour, then we are going to fold
the whole thing together. But again don't worry about over-mixing
The more you mix the more gluten you develop. And La-Di-Da
the chewier your brownie. This time I'm returning to the greased pan
with parchment paper lining, this might not encourage the same glossy
exterior you get with aluminum foil but I just think it makes
it easier to get out of the pan, and as you can see my brownie
battered doubles as I poured it into the pan because I made another batch
Anywho, this guys going to the same 350 degree Fahrenheit
oven for 25-35 minutes until your
degree of doneness
has been acheived,
and I like mine somewhere between barely cooked and
not cooked, it's like the Levain cookie
of brownies, I love it, anyway I hope this gives you some ideas
on how to give up the boxed stuff and improve the brownies in your life
Because whether you like your brownies cakey,
or fudgy or chewie or other; you deserve your
shot at happiness and happiness is a brownie
Hey guys, Brownies..
Hey folks, Brownies...
Brownies...
For you and for me, for America
For the world.. really, uh..
Brownies.. Hey folks, brownies
When I say that word, which of
Lord of the Rings movies do you think of? [Frustrated]
Hey guys, brownies, whether you like them soft [Inaudible]
Brownies.. Is it [Inaudible]
[Inaudible]
Dense and [Inaudible]
Brownies, whether you like them cakey and moist or chewy and
fudgy, I and many others like me will not tell you
that you're wrong.. What? Hey folks, when I say the word-
[Phone Alarm Rings] BALLS!
When I say the word balls! [Laughs]