Making Homemade Brownies - Egg Count?

[Linda0818]

An old favorite recipe I used to use the most had only
4 oz butter and 4 large eggs, but I often used 3 jumbos, as I got them frequently, back then. The one I make the most now, that uses 8 oz butter, is for the same size pan - 9x13 - but much thicker, and stickier. Here's the thinner one, that calls for cocoa, though 4 oz unsweetened chocolate can be used, instead:

1 c all purpose flour
3/4 c Dutch cocoa powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder (if you like cakey brownies - I leave it out)
4 large eggs (or 3 jumbo)
2 c sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp salt (less, if using salted butter)
1/2 c melted unsalted butter
(melted with 4 oz unsweetened chocolate, if using instead of cocoa)
4 oz roasted walnuts, chopped (optional)

Preheat oven to 325°, then heavily butter a 9x13 pan, or line it with parchment or NS foil.

Whisk or sift together the flour, cocoa, and baking powder (if used). In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, vanilla, salt, and sugar, and add the butter slowly, then stir in the dry ingredients, folding in the nuts last. Spread into the prepared pan and level out. Bake 35-40 min., and cool before cutting..

Made your brownies tonight. Excellent! I used the baking powder, but they are still nice and fudgey on the inside, while being a little crunchy and crackly on the top crust. Beautiful!

Thank you so much. I'm definitely saving this recipe.

 

[pepperhead212]

I don't remember what book that came out of, but I don't think there will be any copyright problems, as I've been making them since '76 or '77, when my roommate and I would make them on a regular basis! And we usually multiplied it by 1½, and baked in a 15½x10½ inch pan, which made a slightly thinner brownie.

 

[Linda0818]

I don't remember what book that came out of, but I don't think there will be any copyright problems, as I've been making them since '76 or '77, when my roommate and I would make them on a regular basis! And we usually multiplied it by 1½, and baked in a 15½x10½ inch pan, which made a slightly thinner brownie.

Haha, there you go. Make as many as possible! They're so good.

Oh, btw, I did the 3 jumbo eggs as opposed to 4 large eggs.

 

[dcSaute]

eggs are graded by weight - a jumbo weighs 1.25 x as large.
looks like my brain shifted gears and neglected to tell the typing fingers in my post...

the chart

 

[taxlady]

So 3 jumbo eggs would have 7.5 oz and 4 large would have 8 oz. We know from real world substitution in a brownie recipe, that it works fine to make that substitution. It is within tolerance. And, in the real world the eggs are seldom exactly the average weight for their size. It's a good thing that for most cooking, those tolerances are fine.

 

[pepperhead212]

Remember, those weights given, include the shells, and, though I don't know the exact weights of the eggs w/o the shell, there is probably a higher % of the eggs themselves, after the shells are removed.

 

[Linda0818]

So 3 jumbo eggs would have 7.5 oz and 4 large would have 8 oz. We know from real world substitution in a brownie recipe, that it works fine to make that substitution. It is within tolerance. And, in the real world the eggs are seldom exactly the average weight for their size. It's a good thing that for most cooking, those tolerances are fine.

Yes, for cooking. But, as I'm sure many would agree, baking is an exact science (probably one of the reasons I hate it because I like to 'wing it' when I cook and put my own spin on many dishes) and, if you go off the grid just a tiny bit, it can ruin an entire recipe.

The 3 jumbo eggs, instead of 4 large, in the brownie recipe seemed to work just fine. After cooling, the very edges of the brownies are slightly hard, but the insides are still soft and fudgey and they're still being enjoyed, especially by my son. I don't know if the dryness around the edge of the brownies has anything to do with some of the egg in the recipe missing or not. Because, let's face it, even if these were jumbo eggs and using 3 instead of 4, you're probably still shorting the recipe of egg just a tad.

I'd have to look that up, to see what causes the edges of brownies to get hard. But, again, they are delicious and still nice and moist on the inside.

 

[dragnlaw]

Many people fight for those crispy edges on brownies. Matter of fact my late bro wouldn't have touched them without. Called them undercooked .

Yes, perhaps it is a science but as already stated, take two eggs weigh them without their shells and there will always be a difference.
An example would be certain recipes call for perhaps 1 cup of liquid. Now it could be 3/4 cup milk and one jumbo egg, or less milk more egg.
Read any 2 or 3 recipes for the same cake/cookie/pie and no two are the same. But you still get pretty much the same basic results, the differences are there but slight. Now people will pick their favourites and claim that the other don't "taste" right or have the right "texture". It becomes simply a matter of opinion. Brownies being the best example of that.

Another example is using weights. Generally speaking that is almost always the best way. But I have made breads with weighing the flour and if it call for 300 grams of flour and I get 310 grams on the scale, I will do 2 attempts to even it out, but it bounces from 290/305 I could end up doing that all day. I've never tasted an iota of difference in the loaves.