Bakery owner shares simple recipe for perfect brownies (2024)

FAQs

What sugar is best for brownies? ›

For tender, chewy brownies with a crisp surface that is nearly impossible to resist, reach for both brown sugar and white granulated sugar, and don't be stingy.

Best-Ever 5-Ingredient Brownies are ultra fudgy with rich chocolate flavor and that classic crinkly top. All you need for this easy brownie recipe is butter, sugar, eggs, flour, cocoa powder, and less than 1 hour from start to end. They're more delicious than a boxed mix – but completely unfussy!

"I'm partial to a crisp but chewy outer edge paired with a fudgy, possibly even gooey inside. For this, glass or metal are the best.” If you prefer a cake-y brownie with a consistent texture throughout, a heavy ceramic pan could be the right choice.

Refined granulated sugar is the most common form of sugar used. It is produced in various crystal sizes (fine, super fine, and berry are a few).

Craft your crust

More brown sugar leads to dense brownies with incredible depth of flavor, but the additional moisture can cause their upper crust to be more solid than delicate as a result. If this is how you love your brownies, great.

They give brownies a lighter, drier, and more cake-like texture. If you prefer this over the chewy variety, then go ahead and crack in that additional egg. On the other hand, too many eggs will yield brownies that are hard, heavy, and tough.

Brownie textures fall into three general camps… Cakey, fudgy and chewy. Cakey brownies, like the name implies, are light, moist and airy, with a slightly fluffy, cake-like interior. Fudgy brownies are moist, dense and gooey, with almost the texture of fudge, but not quite as compact.

In brownies, both butter and oil will offer a moist, tender texture, but only butter will give the dish the aeration needed for rising brownies well. If you use a cake brownie, butter is a better option because it helps rise the batter. For denser, fudge type brownies, oil is permissable.

One change is to use milk or heavy cream instead of water. This change will make brownies more moist and gooey since milk is more fatty and flavorful than water. A second change is to use butter instead of oil. For similar reasons to using milk, butter adds a rich and more decadent quality to the batter.

Because most brands of hot chocolate powder include sugar or sweetener, you may wish to reduce the amount of sugar you add to your baking recipe. To use it as a cocoa powder substitute, you need to use two teaspoons of hot chocolate mix for every teaspoon of cocoa powder in the recipe.

How to make brownies in 5 steps? ›

If you make brownies or bake often, consider using or purchasing a metal pan to use in place of your Pyrex dish. Metal pans, specifically aluminum, absorb and transfer heat more consistently than glass, making them perfect for delicious, evenly-cooked, moist brownies every time.

A 9x9" metal (aluminized steel) pan yielded crisp-edged, somewhat dense brownies that were unremarkable. An 8x8" glass pan made brownies with cakey, crackly-on-top corners and a very thick, gooey texture within.

It used to be that they would only grease the bottom of the pan if you were making brownies. It helps them to rise, and they just naturally pull away from the sides slightly when they are done. Now they generally say to grease and flour the brownie pan.

Brown sugar adds a dense chewiness to certain types of baked goods like cookies. When brown sugar is replaced with white sugar, you may end up with a slightly crispier result. Still, this isn't necessarily a bad thing. White sugar can be used to replace brown sugar, producing only slight changes in texture and flavor.

Why You Should Add Turbinado Sugar to Your Baked Goods. Ever wonder how the muffins, scones, and pies at bakeries get so crunchy and sweet? This is your answer. Turbinado is a golden-brown sugar that is different from typical brown sugars, in that it doesn't have any molasses — so it's not as sticky or likely to clump.

The straight answer. Sort of, but brown sugar and white sugar have different effects on your cookies, pastries, brownies, and breads. The molasses content of brown sugar leads to baked goods that are softer and moister. You can still swap them, but you'll need to use less brown sugar in a recipe that calls for white.

Dark brown sugar adds a more complex flavor

That complex molasses flavor (a little sweet and slightly bitter) also adds moisture and tenderness to brownies.