So when I was a little kid, my Mom worked nights and my Dad took care of us evenings, feeding us and getting us into bed. Possibly because we inherited my Mom's sweet tooth, possibly because he began to get into cooking and baking at that time, possibly just to buy good behavior on the part of his children, my Dad started making brownies from scratch and modified the recipe from whatever cookbook it originally came from. They became famous. In fact, I'm sure I'm always very well behaved whenever I eat them.
I got the recipe from him at some point and modified it a bit more, mostly when I lived in Germany and was using slightly different ingredients. I started making them for kayaking trips and was once threatened to be left behind if I ever showed up for a trip without them. Yeah, I made a lot of brownies in Germany. Now, I may be gilding the memory but I swear they were absolutely no-fail excellent then. I don't know what's happened, but I can't seem to get them right since I've been back in the States. What's wrong?! Susan, I am counting on you here. Molly and I made them last night and they were so ridiculously runny in the middle, I had to bake them a lot longer. Should I adjust time or temperature? I am using a glass pan here and wonder if that could be it, but for the life of me I don't remember what I made them in in Germany. argh. Don't get me wrong, they're still terribly yummy, but I have a serious consistency issue. No, not that kind, they are very consistently....runny in the middle when the edges are done.
14 T. butter
2 c. sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1¼ c. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
generous ¾ c. cocoa powder (don't measure, just scoop away with a ¼ cup measure, and the more rounded it is the deeper the chocolate)
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F, and grease a pan (13x9 if you want cakier, 9x9 if you want fudgier...maybe I was using 13x9 in Germany?!).
Melt the butter in a large saucepan over low heat. Remove from heat, allow to cool slightly, then stir in the sugar. When you're sure it's cool enough, stir in the eggs and vanilla, mixing thorougly. Combine dry ingredients in a bowl, then beat into butter mixture well. Spread in pan. Bake 30 minutes or until brownies start to pull away from sides of pan...but do not overbake or they get tough once they've set.
Yeah, I know, this is not a recipe for the faint of heart. But Susan, you'd really be sacrificing for the team if you had to bake these a couple of times and play with them in the interest of helping the recipe.
I'm virtually certain that it's the glass pan. Glass insulates pretty well. I have a recipe that's supposed to take 50 min in the oven, but in the glass pan I use, it takes 75 min. A big difference, no? I'm wondering whether a change in oven temp might be called for as well. A bunch of sites say that you should lower oven temp by 25 degrees if you're using a glass pan. That seems awfully low for baked goods... hmmm....
ReplyDeleteI used a 13x9 inch pan, and baked at 350F. At 30 minutes, the middle was still really jiggly. At 35 minutes, the middle was slightly jiggly, and didn't bounce back when I pressed on it. At 40 minutes, the middle wasn't jiggly anymore, and the middle bounced back satisfactorily, so I took them out.
ReplyDeleteThey didn't seem to be overbaked, despite the extra time in the oven. The corner piece was a bit on the crunchy side on the outside, but crunchy good, not crunchy bad. Even at the very corner, the inside was still fudgy and wonderful. And yeah, you're not joking, these are Seriously Good brownies.
Hmm, yeah, brownies go over big down here, too. Of course Molly's Italian teacher was shocked when she saw how much butter went into the American desserts she loved so much.
ReplyDeleteAnother aside, many of our local expats variously claim that our flour, butter, and leavening agents just ain't the same as the ones back home. I like the results, then again, I'm a notoriously picky eater. :-)
Will give these a try someday!