Not happy with Brownies

[Traveler]

This morning I made Alton Brown's recipe for brownies. I'm not happy with that recipe. First, it took much longer to bake than he says. 2nd they are too cake like, with not enough chewiness.


4 lg eggs, beaten to a froth and light yellow.

1 cup white sugar

1 cup brown sugar

8 ounces butter (2 sticks) melted (seems like too much)

1 1/4 cup cocoa

1/2 cup flour (seems too little)

1/4tsp salt

2tsp vanilla

pre-heat oven to 300 F. (seems quite low to me)

grease and flour a 8 X 8" pan

Beat eggs with mixer until frothy and a light yellow

Add sugars and the rest of the ingredients. Beat well.

Pour into a 8 X 8 " pan. Bake on center rack for 45 minutes until a tooth pick comes out clean. (It took 75 minutes). Though it did rise quite high (1 1/2")and did not shrink upon cooling.


1st how can I increase the chewyness ?

2nd why did it take so long to bake (25 minutes LONGER)

Thank you for any tips on how to improve.

[caseydog]

As much as I like Alton Brown on TV, his recipes are hard to follow, no matter what the food. He just seems to make things more difficult than they need to be.

I don't bake, so I can't address your brownie question directly, but I'm thinking there is probably an easier way to make good brownies.

CD

[GotGarlic]

To make chewy brownies, I would use a different recipe rather than try to fix one that didn't work for you. I haven't tried this one, but the pastry chef who developed it won a James Beard Award for her dessert cookbook. This is an article about the recipe where she explains the science of the ingredients and process. The recipe is linked in the article: https://www.seriouseats.com/2018/02/...chocolate.html

I agree that the temperature was too low. That's probably why it took so long to bake.

[Traveler]

GotGarlic, thanks for the post. Unfortunately , she does not give the amounts of ingredients (there is no closed captioning, I am deaf and I need that). Thanks anyway

[JustJoel]

Originally Posted by Traveler

GotGarlic, thanks for the post. Unfortunately , she does not give the amounts of ingredients (there is no closed captioning, I am deaf and I need that). Thanks anyway

Perhaps you didn’t scroll all the way down to the link get the recipe?? It looks a bit complicated, but it seemed she knows what she’ talking about. The link above includes both the video and the printable recipe.

[Traveler]

Ah, Ha. I didn't notice the "get recipe" at the very bottom of the post. Thank you.

[GotGarlic]

On the Serious Eats site, they often have articles about the science of the recipes and link to the recipes on separate pages. The links are at both the top and the bottom of the page (at the top, it's under the video). Sorry I didn't make that clear enough.

[JustJoel]

My pleasure! Good luck with your next batch of brownies, Traveler!

[Sir_Loin_of_Beef]

[caseydog]

Originally Posted by GotGarlic

On the Serious Eats site, they often have articles about the science of the recipes and link to the recipes on separate pages. The links are at both the top and the bottom of the page (at the top, it's under the video). Sorry I didn't make that clear enough.

When it comes to food science, there are "bakers" in Washington, Oregon, Nevada, California, Colorado, Alaska, Maine, Massachusetts, and vermont who have some very "satisfying" brownie recipes.

Here in Texas, we only have "medical" brownies.

CD

[Addie]

I definitely need a vacation.

I read the title and thought you were referring to Brownies as those little Girl Scouts.

[Mad Cook]

Help needed.


My question about brownies is to do with squigey-ness. Whenever I've tried to make them both from British AND American recipes they always come out like cake rather than a bit "pudding-y" like the brownies I've seen on Food Network.


The only thing I can put it down to is the flour. Our British plain and self-raising flours are not as "strong" as your All Purpose flour. Could that be the problem? In which case would you think that it would help if I replaced a small amount of the ordinary flour with strong bread flour?


It doesn't matter to me as I'm not a chocolate eater but a child of my acquaintance, who knows that I know some American cooks, insists that I should be able to make brownies for his birthday party.