Skip to main content

Fudgy Brownies with a Crunchy Shell

So I was experimenting with another recipe from The America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book.  It ended up tasty enough that I was asked for the recipe. These brownies ended up fudgy in the middle with a kind of crunchy shell on top. I ended up with this:

Stacey's Fudgy Brownie with Crunchy Shell Ingredients
4 oz semi-sweet 62% Scharffen Berger chocolate
2 oz unsweetened 99% Scharffen Berger chocolate
8 tbs (1 stick) unsalted organic butter
1/3c unsweetened cocoa powder, organic (Dagoba)
1 1/2c granulated sugar, organic
3 eggs, organic
2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 tsp salt
1c flour, organic
3/4c milk chocolate chips (Guittard)

9x9" baking pan

Adjust oven rack to higher middle position and preheat to 350F.  Line a 9x9" baking pan with foil and grease it - leave enough foil on the edges so that you can use it to lift the brownies out later.  I used olive oil, but you can use butter or any other type of oil you like.

Put the chocolate (not the chips), butter, cocoa powder and butter into a glass mixing bowl (I like the Pyrex mixing bowls) and microwave at 30 second intervals for 1-3 minutes, stirring in between until all the chocolate is melted.  You don't want the chocolate to get too hot because you need to add the eggs later and you don't want them to cook accidentally.  I tried not to let it get above 110F.

Add the sugar, eggs, vanilla and salt to the chocolate mixture and stir it all in.  Fold in the flour and then the milk chocolate chips.  I was using bread flour because I wanted to see what would happen, but if you do this, don't overmix because you'll create too much gluten.  Mix until just combined and there are no more flour lumps.

Spread the mixture into the bottom of the greased pan and bake for 35-40 minutes, rotating once at the halfway point.  The original recipe says if a toothpick is inserted it should come out with a few crumbs, but this recipe has such a crunchy shell, I'm not sure if this would end up happening.

Using the extra foil at the edges once it's cool enough to handle, pull up the brownies out of the pan and allow them to further cool on a rack.

I cut into them while they were still warm.




Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Throwing some shade

Ombre Flowers So I wanted to try that new ombre cake frosting trend.  I used whip cream here on an eggless chocolate cake I made for a potluck at work (for those egg-free individuals on my team).  Everyone was sufficiently impressed.  I was a little disappointed at the messiness of the blue/purple end, and I kinda ran out of cream, but it tasted good. Anyway... Eggless Chocolate Cake 2 c sugar 1 3/4 c flour 3/4 c unsweetened cocoa powder 1.5 tsp baking powder 1.5 tsp baking soda 1/2 c sunflower oil, organic 1 c whole milk, organic 1 c boiling water 1 tsp salt 3 tbs flax seeds Roses 2 c heavy cream 1/4c sour cream 1 tsp vanilla ½ c powdered sugar food coloring (if desired) Pre-heat oven to 350F. Soak flax seeds in milk for an hour or overnight (or use flax meal). Blend (I used a stick blender).  Mix dry ingredients. Mix in wet ingredients, with boiling water being last. Pour into cake pan (9x13).  Bake for 30 min, rotating once.    Let cake

Chocolate Banana Muffins with Cream Cheese Frosting

I made these for a potluck. Three people asked me for the recipe. Now you can be part of the three!  Ingredients: 3 large ripe bananas, mashed 3 tbs butter 3 tbs oil 2 eggs 1/3 c buttermilk 1 tsp vanilla 3/4 c sugar 1/2 tsp salt 2 c flour 3/4 c baking soda 1/2 c cocoa powder 2 tbs butter 1/2 c milk chocolate chips (but you can use any kind) Chocolate dipped banana chips and decorating sugar (optional) Preheat oven to 350F. Mix all the first set of ingredients together (all the wet + sugar and salt). Mix in the flour and baking soda. Split the batter in half and add the cocoa powder, 2 tbs butter, and chocolate chips to 1 half. You might have to use a mixer because the cocoa powder gets clumpy. Fill muffin cups with half of each kind of batter. Bake for 20-22 minutes. Makes about 18 muffins. Cream cheese frosting ingredients: 1 – 8oz pkg cream cheese 5 tbs butter 1 tbs sour cream 1 tsp vanilla (I used vanilla bean paste) 1 c p

Chocolate Chunk Cranberry Cookies

I'd been wanting to try out a recipe with chocolate chunks instead of regular chips and thought I'd give this one a shot. Result: rave reviews from the BBQ I went to at my friend's house. Ingredients (weight not volume) 10.1 oz flour 0.5 oz cornstarch 1/2 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp salt 12 tbs (1.5 sticks) butter 7 oz light brown sugar 3 oz granulated sugar 1 egg 2 tsp vanilla bean paste (you can use regular vanilla extract if you want) 9 oz dark and white chocolate chunks (I chopped up a 70% bar and used white chocolate disks 6oz:3oz dark:white - you can use whatever mixture you like, or use chocolate chips) 1/3 c dried cranberries Preheat oven to 350F. Soften butter in the microwave. Beat sugar, egg, vanilla, and butter until fluffy.  Add dry ingredients and mix. Drop about 2 tbs of dough at a time on the cookie sheets,  about 2" apart (I used a 1 oz scooper). Bake for 10-12 min, rotating the pan once after 6 minutes until edges are starting to bro