I'm making chocolate brownies

Merlin5 · 12 Feb 2019 at 19:56

In the oven for 40 minutes. Then it'll have to cool for a couple of hours or so before I can remove from the tin. I hope they come out nice, never made them before. Can't wait to try them. The recipe I followed had a magic ingredient, 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil. That apparently makes it really gooey and fudgy.

I'll report back.

Also, I watched some videos of how to line a square tin. Looks too complicated so I just squashed my baking paper in and made sure it sat flat, should be ok.

Ingredients are melted Stork spread, brown sugar (I used a mix of muscavado and golden caster), white caster sugar, veg oil, salt, 4 eggs, vanilla extract flour, cocoa powder, and nearly 3 bars of chopped dark chocolate. Gonna be a ton of yummy choc chunks throughout. The smell coming from the oven is divine. 15 minutes left.

jpaul · 13 Feb 2019 at 08:54

Did you forget to set the timer ? or the sugar-hit is still working-off

what is the flour to cocoa/choc/sugar ratio ?, looks top-heavy

Merlin5 · 13 Feb 2019 at 11:17

jpaul said:
Did you forget to set the timer ? or the sugar-hit is still working-off

what is the flour to cocoa/choc/sugar ratio ?, looks top-heavy

Hmm, I don't know what the actual ratios are, I just followed this recipe

https://www.biggerbolderbaking.com/best-ever-brownies/
https://youtu.be/6bLAIYHOLwA

It seems to have come out well I think? I left it overnight and have just sliced into it. Not had breakfast yet but tried a couple of bites.

Definitely gooey inside with a nice crispy top. Very rich with chocolate, I don't think I'll be able to polish this of by myself. There are some parts of the brownie that look moist/wet but I'm not sure are meant to be like that or if it's under baked? Was in the oven for 40 minutes which was the maximum time suggested.

jpaul · 13 Feb 2019 at 11:38

yes -

jpaul said:
what is the flour to cocoa/choc/sugar ratio ?, looks top-heavy

150 : 123+270+428 so should take a month to eat @25gsug/day - Gemmas looking svelte on them

Merlin5 · 13 Feb 2019 at 11:59

jpaul said:
yes -

150 : 123+270+428 so should take a month to eat @25gsug/day - Gemmas looking svelte on them

Yes, she's nice isn't she

Lol yeah, that some sugar rush. Better give some away before I become diabetic.

So, your 'Yes', is that thumbs up or down, are the wet looking bits meant to look like that?

monkentage · 13 Feb 2019 at 18:30

That would be down to personal preference.

I haven't made brownies in too long so I think I'll give that recipe a go. My current favourite recipe is Nigel Slater's.

Jasoncmor · 13 Feb 2019 at 18:41

Because of reading this last night, I also made brownies

Merlin5 · 13 Feb 2019 at 20:45

Glad you guys are inspired.

Something not quite right with mine. It seems the molten bits are meant to look like that as I just watched Jamie Oliver's recipe and his looks the same.

The problem with mine is that, although it's nice and gooey, I'm tasting quite an overpowering chocolate bitterness.

edit: I think there's too much cocoa powder. Compared to some other recipes, hers has 4 times as much cocoa powder. Next time I'll use 30g instead of 123g. I would also prefer them thinner so i'll either make less or buy a 12 x 8 shallower brownie tray.

XeNoN89 · 14 Feb 2019 at 09:40

I'm going to make some brownies soon too, will need to be dairy free for the misses though!

Never baked anything so this should be a good place to start! Hope i don't overcook as I prefer gooey rather than cakey brownies

ElliorR · 14 Feb 2019 at 14:06

My go to recipe originally called for a cooking time of 35-40 mins. I decided to record my efforts to try and get these as perfect for me as I could and ended up doing 7 different versions over a week.

My first attempt was cooked for 34 mins but I felt they were over cooked. Over the next 6 versions I changed the quantities of chocolate and cocoa powder along with the cooking time and eventually discovered 27 mins, at 160 fan, was perfect for me. I even did a gluten free version, as I end up taking these to work as I get 30 brownies from each batch and as much as I love brownies even I have my limits, and one person there is gluten intolerant. They were surprisingly not as bad as I thought they’d be but I doubt I’ll make them gluten free again.

jpaul · 14 Feb 2019 at 17:29

unlike most cakes where a clean knife blade indicates it's cooked, maybe you could put an oven temp probe into them to check mixture is cooked ?
albeit, considering it continues cooking when removed from oven. ... serious eats must have analysed optimum recipe ?

Merlin5 · 14 Feb 2019 at 20:12

Yeah I think mine were cooked right as a blade isn't meant to come out completely clean on brownies, but I think there's too much cocoa powder. Although I followed Gemma's quantities exactly, I've seen other recipes, one is BakeLikeAPro and another is Jamie Olivers, and they use only about 30g cocoa to about 210g to 250g chocolate, which is about 1:7/1:8 ratio. Gemma uses 123g cocoa to 270g chocolate, almost 1:2. I'll try the BakeLikeAPro recipe next time.

I posted on Gemma's brownie youtube page and she replied "It is the natural bitter taste of cocoa that caused this. You can definitely change it up to milk chocolate if you do not enjoy that particular taste."

I'm not so sure I need to change to milk chocolate, or would that be nicer?

I think it's just the cocoa bitterness is overpowering and takes away from the sweetness, which is amazing considering there's more sugar in her recipe than the others.

Merlin5 · 14 Feb 2019 at 20:24

ElliorR said:
My go to recipe originally called for a cooking time of 35-40 mins. I decided to record my efforts to try and get these as perfect for me as I could and ended up doing 7 different versions over a week.

My first attempt was cooked for 34 mins but I felt they were over cooked. Over the next 6 versions I changed the quantities of chocolate and cocoa powder along with the cooking time and eventually discovered 27 mins, at 160 fan, was perfect for me. I even did a gluten free version, as I end up taking these to work as I get 30 brownies from each batch and as much as I love brownies even I have my limits, and one person there is gluten intolerant. They were surprisingly not as bad as I thought they’d be but I doubt I’ll make them gluten free again.

Can you share your recipe? I'd be interested to maybe try it. Not the gluten free one, your regular one.

ElliorR · 14 Feb 2019 at 20:50

Merlin5 said:
Can you share your recipe? I'd be interested to maybe try it. Not the gluten free one, your regular one.

Of course.

This recipe is for a 30 x 20 cm tray bake tin like the one I linked further up the page.

Ingredients

225g butter
450g caster sugar
100g 72% dark chocolate
5 eggs
110g plain flour
68g cocoa powder
100g chocolate chips

Melt the butter and sugar together slowly.
Remove from the heat and add the bar of chocolate, mix till fully melted.
I then transfer this mixture to my Kenwood Chef metal bowl to add the rest of the ingredients.
Add the 5 eggs and mix.
Sift the flour and coca powder into the mix and fold in.
Add the chocolate chips.
Pour mix into the tray bake tin (I only line the bottom with baking paper as it's a loose bottomed one). Spread it out evenly.
I set my fan oven to 160 and cook for 27 mins.
remove from oven and let cool for a while. Bang tray on counter top and remove. Cut as you like, I make 30 brownies.

These are, for me, very nice and even better when still warm.

Merlin5 · 14 Feb 2019 at 22:27

Thanks ElliorR, might try that or one of the other recipes I mentioned, not sure yet. Is that milk choc chips or dark?

ElliorR · 15 Feb 2019 at 15:23

Merlin5 said:
Thanks ElliorR, might try that or one of the other recipes I mentioned, not sure yet. Is that milk choc chips or dark?

I've used both to mix it up a little and both are as good as each other.

jpaul · 15 Feb 2019 at 19:59

Merlin5 said:
I'm not so sure I need to change to milk chocolate, or would that be nicer?

none of that cadburys~~mondelez~~ ~~dairy~~vegetable chocolate ... who knows what might happen.

serious eats recipe say it should hit 96C in the middle , similar recipe using dutch cocoa powder that dissolves in faster ... good for hot chocolate

jpaul · 17 Feb 2019 at 13:44

Subsequently wondered what the cocoa/cocoa-butter the EU designated for 'chocolate' since I buy a number of white chocolates from Aldi/lidl which do not specifically say on the wrapper.

turns out Cadbury's seem to have driven getting an exception, exclusively for milk chocolate

In addition, the EU allows a different kind of "milk chocolate" to be sold in the UK and Ireland (it must be labelled "family milk chocolate" anywhere else in the EU). This contains at least 20% cocoa (powder and butter combined) and 20% milk solids - and Cadbury Dairy Milk falls into this category. The list of ingredients on the back of a British-made Cadbury Dairy Milk bar says it contains a minimum of 20% cocoa solids. When it comes to "milk solids" the label says: "20% minimum, actual 23%".

For years, Belgium and France argued that only chocolate made from cocoa butter deserved the name, and that British-style products which used vegetable fats should be called something else
Chocolate purists have often blocked imports containing vegetable fat. There was even a demand that they should be called vegelate.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Types_of_chocolate#European_Union
chocolate and white chcocolate, seem safe.

I'll have to find some true european milk chocolate , to see how that tastes.

Merlin5 · 17 Feb 2019 at 18:09

I cut up most of the rest of my brownies into squares, took them to my gig last night and gave them to the guys in my band. They loved them, one of them said it was perfect, just how he liked it. So I guess they were as they're meant to be. The bitterness has calmed down a bit or my palate has adjusted, but I'll still make my next batch with less cocoa.

bJN · 17 Feb 2019 at 22:39

I followed ElliorR's recipe above yesterday actually, although ended up cooking for 38 minutes (oven, although fan, isn't that reliable). Came out really nice and have gone down well with the other half!

I think next time I need to let the batter cool before adding chocolate chips as they just melted straight away. Wouldn't mind it a little gooeyer, but they were really lovely!