Perfect Brownies – Lessons Learned in the Kitchen

I have always considered myself a fairly adept cook. When it comes to preparing meals, I stumble far less frequently than I do when baking. And the reason is clear. In most aspects of my life, I am a perfectionist. If I can’t execute something flawlessly, I often find it difficult to justify doing it at all. Folding laundry, for example, is a task I dislike because it demands a significant amount of time, a luxury I seldom possess. Consequently, instead of tackling it swiftly, my laundry tends to linger embarrassingly long in a laundry basket. This is no different while I attempted to find the perfect brownies recipe.

Cooking, thankfully, doesn’t demand perfection. It’s my daily reprieve from the pursuit of flawlessness, an opportunity to embrace imperfection and learn that the end result can still be splendid, even if I didn’t execute it flawlessly. Perhaps that’s why I derive so much joy from it. On the contrary, baking requires precision, and that’s where I encounter my challenges. To be honest, I don’t find the process inherently enjoyable, but the outcome is undeniably worth the effort.

So, consider this blog a record of my culinary journey, complete with the lessons learned from my missteps.

How do I prevent my brownies from having the consistency of chalk?

Dry brownies suck. These are the experiments I have done and how they turned out.

Base Recipe

This is the recipe I started with. The creator claimed it would produce chewy brownies but it did not. It was also not very chocolatey.

Ingredients

• 10 tbsp unsalted butter (melted)
• 2.5 cups granulated sugar
• 4 large eggs plus 2 egg yolk (cold from the fridge)
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• ⅔ cup avocado oil
• 1.5 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• ¼ tsp baking soda
• 2 tbsp cornstarch
• ½ tsp salt

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 325 and line a half sheet baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Add sugar and butter to a microwave safe dish and cook in microwave until butter is melted. Start with 30 seconds and add 15 seconds until butter is melted. It should take about 1 minute.
3. Fit standmixer with whisk attachment or gather a large mixing bowl and hand whisk.
4. Whisk sugar and melted butter until well combined.
5. Add eggs, egg yolks and vanilla and whisk to combine.
6. Add the oil and cocoa powder and whisk until combined.
7. Switch the mixer to the paddle attachment or if doing this by hand use a rubber spatula.
8. Mixing on low, fold in the flour, baking soda, cornstarch, and salt until combined.
9. Toss chocolate chips in a small amount of flour.
10. Spread the batter evenly in your baking sheet. Sprinkle the chocolate chips on top of the batter.
11. Bake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Be careful to not overcook the brownies (They are done between 175-185℉ read with a digital thermometer).

Experiment Number 1:

EXPERIMENT DETAILS: In this experiment, I cooked the brownies as is but added chocolate chips to the batter

• Cooking temperature: 325 degrees F
• Cooking time: 25 minutes
• Ingredients: added 1 cup of milk chocolate chips

. RESULTS:

• Final Temperature: Unknown
• Consistency: Gooey in center and dry on outsides
• Moisture content: Dry
• Chocolate Taste: Limited

CONCLUSION: Adding chocolate chips to the batter did not work as expected. The chips migrated to the center of the batter while baking and then sank to the bottom of the brownies.

Experiment Number 2:

EXPERIMENT DETAILS: In this experiment, I adjusted cooking time and added chocolate chips coated in flour.

• Cooking temperature: 325 degrees F
• Cooking time: 20 minutes
• Ingredients: Coated the chocolate chips with flour so they wouldn’t sink.

RESULTS:

• Final internal temperature: 199 degrees F.
• Consistency: Cake like and dry
• Moisture content: Dry
• Chocolate taste: Limited

CONCLUSION: Coating milk chocolate chips in flour and placing them on top prevented the chips from melting into the batter. The batter was dry because the chips did not sink. 20 minutes was still too long for sheet pan brownies.

Experiment Number 3:

EXPERIMENT DETAILS: In this experiment, I made some ingredient updates.

• Cooking temperature: 325 degrees F
• Cooking time: 25 minutes
• Ingredients:
  • Increased to 1 1/2 cups of milk chocolate chips
  • Replaced the 2 egg yolks with a banana
  • Added 5 more tablespoons of butter

. RESULTS:

• Final Temperature: N/A
• Consistency: Soft and Fudgy like boxed brownies
• Moisture content: Perfect
• Chocolate Taste: Just right

CONCLUSION: This is definately the recipe for making sheetpan chocolate brownies.