I tested out three different brownie recipes. The recipes were from Bon Appetit, Tasty, and Food Network. Here are the recipes and my results:
Bon Appetit:
Recipe-
Ingredients:
Nonstick vegetable oil spray
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 1 inch pieces
1 1/4 cups sugar
3/4 cup Scharffen Berger natural unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 325°. Line an 8x8x2 inches glass baking dish with foil, pressing firmly into pan and leaving a 2-inch overhang. Coat foil with nonstick spray; set baking dish aside.
Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Let cool slightly. Whisk sugar, cocoa, and salt in a medium bowl to combine. Pour butter in a steady stream into dry ingredients, whisking constantly to blend.
Whisk in vanilla. Add eggs one at a time, beating vigorously to blend after each addition. Add flour and stir until just combined (do not overmix).
Scrape batter into prepared pan; smooth top.
Bake until top begins to crack and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with a few moist crumbs attached, 25-30 minutes.
Transfer pan to a wire rack; let cool completely in pan. Using foil overhang, lift brownie out of pan; transfer to a cutting board. Cut into 16 squares.
Rating: 2/5
Although the brownies were moist and chocolatey, they could have been sweeter. They had a bitter taste from the cocoa powder and didn’t rise in the oven at all, so they were super thin.
Tasty:
Recipe-
Ingredients:
2 ½ sticks unsalted butter, plus more, softened, for greasing
8 oz good-quality semisweet chocolate, or bittersweet chocolate, 60-70% cacao, roughly chopped
¾ cup unsweetened dutch process cocoa powder, divided
1 tablespoon espresso powder
2 cups granulated sugar
½ cup dark brown sugar, packed
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 teaspoons kosher salt
6 large eggs
1 cup all-purpose flour
flaky sea salt, for sprinkling
Ingredients:
Grease a 9x13-inch (23x33-cm) dark metal pan with softened butter, then line with parchment paper, leaving overhang on all sides. Grease the parchment with softened butter.
Combine the chopped chocolate, ¼ cup (30 g) of cocoa powder, and espresso powder in a heatproof liquid measuring cup or medium bowl and set aside.
Add the butter to a small saucepan over medium heat and cook until the butter just comes to a vigorous simmer, about 5 minutes, swirling the pan occasionally. Immediately pour the hot butter over the chocolate mixture and let sit for 2 minutes. Whisk until the chocolate is completely smooth and melted, then set aside.
Combine the granulated sugar, brown sugar, vanilla extract, salt, and eggs in a large bowl. Beat with an electric hand mixer on high speed until light and fluffy, about 10 minutes. It will be similar to the texture of very thick pancake batter.
With the mixer on, pour in the slightly cooled chocolate and butter mixture and blend until smooth.
Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350°F (180°C).
Sift in the flour and remaining cocoa powder and use a rubber spatula to gently fold until just combined.
Pour the batter into the prepared baking pan and smooth the top with a spatula. Bake until lightly puffed on top, about 20 minutes.
Remove the baking pan from the oven using oven mitts or kitchen towels, then lightly drop the pan on a flat surface 1-2 times until the brownies deflate slightly. Sprinkle with flaky sea salt.
Return the pan to the oven and bake until a wooden skewer inserted into the center of the brownies comes out fudgy but the edges look cooked through, about 20 minutes more. The center of the brownies will seem under-baked, but the brownies will continue to set as they cool.
Set the brownies on a cooling rack and cool completely in the pan.
Use the parchment paper to lift the cooled brownies out of the pan. Cut into 24 bars and serve immediately.
Rating: 4/5
The brownies came out really moist, rose really well, and tasted nice and sweet but needed a little more chocolate flavor.
Food Network:
Recipe-
Ingredients:
2 sticks (16 tablespoons) unsalted butter, plus more for greasing the foil
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon fine salt
4 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs, slightly beaten
Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9- by-13-inch baking pan with foil, leaving a 2-inch overhang on at least 2 sides. Butter the foil.
Whisk together the flour, cocoa powder and salt in a medium bowl.
Melt the butter and chocolate in a medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring frequently. Let cool slightly.
Stir in the sugar and eggs. Add the flour mixture, and stir to combine.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan, and bake until a toothpick comes out with just a few crumbs, 30 to 35 minutes.
Rating: 4.5/5 Â Â
These super chewy brownies were almost perfect; they just needed a little more chocolate flavor.
The winner is Food Network!!!
