Baking Mishap

[brigid]

Mirrored from brigidkeely.com/wordpress.

I’ve been cooking and baking basically since I could reach the counter/table and remember cooking on the stove top while standing on a stool or chair because I wasn’t tall enough to stand and do it. Hell, I started “helping” my mom make bread when I was 3. What I’m trying to say is, I know my way around a kitchen fairly well.

I don’t make brownies very often, and when I do, I generally use a mix that I buy on sale or something. I came across a recipe that was allegedly one used by a woman and her family for years and years, brownies that she brought to other people when they were sick/busy/In Crisis/whatever and then they loved them and begged for the recipe, etc. Recipes like that, they’re usually pretty good. They aren’t just “Oh, I made this once and it turned out really good,” they’re “I make this all the time and this is exactly right.” I was eager to try this because I’ve gotten some cook books (and used recipes online) that… very obviously hadn’t been tested. Or else they had errors in the recipe that a novice cook wouldn’t know how to deal with but that I was able to figure out. That’s frustrating, you know? Especially in a printed cookbook one has paid money for.

I frowned a little as I read the recipe because it called for a lot of butter. “Hm,” I said to myself, “that is a lot of butter.” Let me clarify here. I have no qualms with butter. My pie crust recipe calls for five million pounds of butter. Butter is fantastic to bake with. So when I say “Oh wow that is a lot of butter,” I should listen to myself.

The brownies turned out kind of… over saturated with butter. Greasy. The finished square of brownie was kind of resting in a 1mm deep pool of butter. It was pretty disgusting.

One of the things I liked about this recipe is that it’s easy to make. You use cocoa powder and don’t mess about with melting chocolate (which I’ve done, it’s not terribly difficult, but when you have a very active and clingy 18 month old under foot, baking really needs to be as simple as possible). I’m honestly pretty disappointed that I’ve wasted butter, eggs, sugar, nuts, cocoa, etc on something so dense and greasy. The actual flavor is ok (under the excessive butter taste) but the texture is just… wow. Oily. Dense in a bad way. I might try this recipe again, scaling back on the butter.

In the mean time, share your favorite brownie recipes, please. I’d love to see what you’ve got. For the record, I prefer chewy brownies to cake-y brownies.

Comments

[madelienegrey]

This is my favorite recipe - it's for dark chocolate vegan brownies, but you can use real butter/margarine and not ruin it. This recipe is also for dark chocolate brownies, but I've used regular cocoa and semi-sweet chips and still loved them.

1 cup Earth Balance or non-hydrogenated margarine, softened
2 cups dark brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
8 tsp Ener-G egg replacer + 12 Tbsp water (do not sub eggs, ruins texture)
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 cup dark cocoa powder (e.g., Hershey's "Special Dark")
2 and 1/2 cups flour
1 and 1/2 cup dark chocolate bits or chips
Optional: chopped nuts

Cream together the Earth Balance and sugars.
Add the egg replacer and vanilla and beat until well combined.
Add the baking powder, salt, cocoa powder and flour and beat until just combined.
Stir in the nuts and chocolate chips.
Spread into a 9x13 square pan (grease sides and line bottom with parchment).
Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes, until done. Cool and cut into squares.

[cleverthylacine]

...what is this egg replacer made of, if you can't use an actual egg?

[brigid]

According to this it is Potato starch, tapioca flour, leavening (calcium lactate [non-dairy], calcium carbonate, citric acid), cellulose gum, carbohydrate gum.

[cleverthylacine]

mmm yum! ;-) thanks!

[brigid]

Are you thinking of going egg-free?

[cleverthylacine]

No, the yum (not the thanks) was sarcasm, hence the winky :) I tend to not care for the taste of highly processed replacers and when I do eat vegan food and enjoy it it's usually made from whole foods.

I am wondering if I'll have to go gluten free at some point, but hopefully not.

[brigid]

This is really useful, I have a lot of vegan friends.

[madelienegrey]

Most vegans (and non-vegans!) I know are very happy with these. :D

[cleverthylacine]

You may not want my recipes. I like cakey brownies (which I've not made in years and am not sure I have a recipe for) and crisp cookies.

[brigid]

I am all over crisp cookies. Feel free to share crisp cookie recipes. AW YISSSS.

[killing_rose]

My primary brownie recipe's vegan, soy-free, and gluten free. Still want it?

(I know we used to have one that Ki and I used as teenagers, but hell knows if either of us could find it without a map. But it might be on my external, so I'll check.)

[brigid]

I have friends who are vegan and while I don't currently know anybody close to me with gluten issues, I don't think a gluten free vegan soy-free recipe would hurt to have, you know?

[killing_rose]

...Wow. I'm flaky today. Correction. It's dairy and gluten free. It is ~not~ egg free and thus not vegan. I'm sorry; it's been one of those days.

http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/2006/01/dark-chocolate-brownies.html

I've also substituted rum or amaretto in for interesting flavors. (There's been at least one night when the brownies may have had enough alcohol to still be alcoholic after we'd baked them. Oops.)

[brigid]

I'm having a flaky day, too. :) One of my formerly-vegan friends is consuming eggs now but no dairy, so that might still come in handy. Thank you. :)

[st_aurafina]

These are the only brownies I've ever been able to cook right - maybe because someone's done the legwork of converting it from US to UK measurements? I don't know why, but I always end up with miserable, dry brownies if I use a US recipe. I must be misinterpreting something incredibly basic.

Still, these are good - soft and chewy in texture, rich and chocolaty in flavour. And the recipe works for me, over and over, which is also good.

[brigid]

Oh, that looks really good! Thanks for sharing.

[cleverthylacine]

I may be one of the only people in the world that likes crunchy brownies...

[brigid]

I will FIGHT YOU for the corner pieces, which are crunchy on the edges and dry/chewy in the middle. FIGHT. I actually like my brownies sliiiiiightly stale.