Baking Tutorial: Homemade Brownies

I will admit something embarrassing here. Brownies are my baking nemesis. They either come out too wet or too dry which is very frustrating. I often buy dry mixes instead of making them from scratch, shocking I know! Brownies have a lot of rules to them. I will go through these rules with you today. Sadly, I could not find this recipe (Bonnie Stern’s Double Chocolate Brownies) online to share with you so if you are looking for a recipe, try Anna Olson’s Walnut Chocolate Brownies. I have made these with great success but yesterday I wanted to try something different.

One of the important rules of making brownies is the eggs must be at room temperature. I forget to take them out of the fridge ahead of time so instead I submerge the eggs in warm water for a few minutes which does the trick. Also, brownies should be combined quickly so get the dry ingredients mixed ahead of time and whisk up the sugar, eggs and vanilla while the butter is melting on the stove.

I never said these brownies were low in fat! Most rich and dense brownies will be made with melted butter that has either been combined with cocoa powder or dark chocolate like I did here on low heat.

Slowly pour the melted chocolate and butter into the wet ingredients and whisk. This is called tempering. When you have something hot going into an egg mixture, well, you do not want scrambled eggs right? Combining them slowly will bring the eggs’ temperature up gradually and gently.

After adding the dry ingredients to the batter, combined gently and quickly. You do not want to beat the batter and develop the gluten in the flour so fold it in quickly. As soon as the flour disappears add any little extras.

I have been loving peanut butter and chocolate lately so I threw in some peanut butter chips. This is where you can have fun with your food and tailor the recipe the way you would like. Fold in the chips or nuts gently into your batter and get it quickly into your square pan.

Knowing when brownies are done is the toughest part. They are not a cake, so using the toothpick test is not always a good idea because you want it to be fudgy in the middle and the brownies will continue to cook once they are out of the oven. I usually like to tap the top to make sure that it feels kind of solid and not like pudding.

I was so happy that I made a good batch of brownies yesterday. They do not require special ingredients or bakeware. In fact, don’t you dare turn on those mixers! Brownies must be made by hand and with lots of love.