Hi internet. My appetite has gone through the roof lately. I have been making so much pasta (a blog post for next week), and eating many brownies for breakfast.
These brownies are adapted from Basics with Babish's recipe.That's two Babish recipe blog posts in a row! And three total (the fried green tomatoes, the latkes, and this one).
So this shouldn't come as a surprise but brownies are a pretty easy baking recipe. They are mostly forgiving. Let's get into it...
Ingredients
-Cooking oil spray
-1/3 cup cocoa powder
-1.5 tsp espresso powder (I use instant espresso; according to Google these are the same thing)
-2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
-1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp boiling water
-4 tbsp butter
-1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp vegetable oil
-2 large eggs plus 2 egg yolks
-1.5 tsp vanilla extract
-2.5 cups granulated sugar
-1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
-6 oz bittersweet chocolate chopped (I used 72% chocolate for this one; it depends on your preferred level of sweetness. If you like things disgustingly sweet, go for something like 60%. If you are pretty sensitive to sweetness, go for maybe 80ish percent.)
Equipment
-9x13 inch shallow baking pan. I have two 9x13 inch baking pans: one is 2" deep, the other is 3" deep. When I used the 3" deep pan, the brownies were scarily gooey and fudgey. I highly recommend using a 2"-depth (or similar) baking pan for normal brownies.
-Parchment paper
-(Optional) 4-6 binder clips
Recipe
Cover your baking dish by lining it with parchment paper. I could not figure out a way to do this neatly without using binder clips. Then spray the parchment paper with your cooking oil spray. Here is my baking dish. I probably did not have to use that much oil.
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
In a large bowl, combine the cocoa powder, espresso powder, and unsweetened chocolate. (As Babish explains in the video version of the recipe, the espresso powder does not make the brownies taste like coffee; it just amps up the chocolate flavor.)
Boil your water and then pour in the bowl. Mix until everything is melted.
Then add the butter and stir until it is melted. I like to chop the butter roughly before adding because that helps it melt faster. Then add vegetable oil and stir until homogenous.
Check your mixture with your finger to see if it's not too hot. If it's more or less cooled down, add the eggs and egg yolks. Otherwise the egg would cook.
Do you know how to separate egg whites from egg yolks? You basically crack the egg over a bowl, and keep the yolk in one of the halves of the cracked eggshell. A bunch of egg white will fall into the bowl. Keep on transferring the yolk from eggshell half to eggshell half until all the whites have fallen down. You can also crack the egg over your hand, and open up your fingers just enough for the egg white to fall down, while the yolk stays on top of your hand.
Next step is to add the vanilla extract and whisk in. Then add the granulated sugar and stir until combined. Wow, this is a lot of adding things to a bowl and mixing.
Finally, add in the flour. Mix thoroughly and then chop up your bittersweet chocolate and stir it in.
Pour that batter into your pan.
Place in the oven for 35 minutes. Once the 35 minutes is up, take out of the oven and insert a toothpick somewhere into the middle of the brownie sheet. If it comes out clean-ish, it's ready. To be honest, it usually takes me more than 35 minutes for my brownie sheet to pass the toothpick test. If it's not ready, just pop it back in and regular take out and test until it's ready.
What is a clean-ish toothpick, you ask? The toothpick is not gooey with brownie, but it can have some brownie on it.
This is a tangent but did you notice the brownie sheet did not rise like most baked goods do? That's because we didn't put any rising agent in it.
Then you have to wait 1 hour for the brownie sheet to cool. Listen and do not be impatient. You will burn your tongue and you will get very gooey brownie. It is OK, you can survive 1 hour without brownies, I believe in you.
At this point, I like to fully wait until my brownie sheet is cool before placing in the fridge, and let it sit in the fridge for a few hours or overnight before I take it out and cut it up into squares. Otherwise, it is super hard to cut the brownie sheet neatly.
Voila, now you have like, 1 to 2 weeks of breakfast ready for you, if you are like me. This is probably not the most nutritious or healthy breakfast but the espresso powder really helps me in the morning 😅
Result
What a great brownie. It is chewy and fudgy, as the title predicted. If you like your brownies cakier and drier, first of all, why? But second of all, find a recipe that makes cakey brownies. Babish provides one for you.
It is very chocolatey. It is very soft, especially if you reheat it before eating. The top is the tiniest bit crackly. It is delicious and satisfying.
I have some interest in baking more sophisticated brownies in the future. But I'm happy with this one as my staple brownie recipe.
Thank you for making it to the end. Next week I will cover chicken pesto pasta, which has completely hijacked my brain.
Have a good week,
Tuck
P.S. The brownie sheet is around 5650 calories.
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