This brownie is different than regular brownies in that the goal of the brownie was (as they have written) “distinctly chewy—a moist, dark, luscious brownie with a firm, smooth, velvety texture. It must pack an intense chocolate punch and have deep, resonant chocolate flavor, but it must fall just short of overwhelming the palate.”

So I have tried making this recipe a couple of times and for comparison’s sake:

Now the first batch I made followed the recipe in the book pretty closely. However, later that night I decided to make a second batch to bring to the office to have other people try out (pictured) since my first batch seemed pretty successful.

Unfortunately, for the second batch I found that I had run out of semi-sweet chocolate. I had to make up for the 2 oz. of semi-sweet I didn’t have so I ended up using dark chocolate. So technically, the pictured brownie I have has 4 types of chocolate and not 3.  In the brownie I made there is: unsweetened, semi-sweet, dark and cocoa powder.

I actually think the process here is pretty easy to do and the worst part is the waiting 2 hours! for the brownies to fully cool. Anyways, I did vary from the instructions a bit and made a few notes about the recipe.

  • I use only one sheet of foil for the pan and I do not make the sling. I’ve tried using 2 pieces like they recommend but it is such a pain to do since the foil is generally so much larger anyways. I end up just pushing the foil to the corners and letting any excess hang over or get trimmed with scissors. Taking the brownies out with just the one piece of foil has never been a problem.
  • To melt the butter and the chocolate I have to really cut the chocolate down quite a bit, I find that the chocolate takes way longer to melt down when they are only cubed. I’ll probably end up cutting the pieces a bit more but I will also microwave them at the beginning to get the melting going. Same goes for the butter. In fact I’ll probably have it in the same bowl all at the same time.
  • The mixing bowl for the dry ingredients is supposed to be a medium bowl. That size works as is but I felt like it was just a tad too cramped and next time I’ll make them in a large bowl. I like being able to whisk without worrying about spilling anything.

Conclusion: It’s a great straight forward recipe. Totally appropriate for those new to baking and even I can pull it off.