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Chocolate Brownies Recipe

April 14th, 2009 by RG in Dessert Recipes

All About Chocolate - Part 2

Yesterday I wrote all about where chocolate comes from, how it is made and the differences between bittersweet chocolate and semi sweet chocolate. I also look at dark chocolate, white chocolate and ask, "Does chocolate really taste sweet?" - See All About Chocolate - Part 1

Chocolaty Examples

Chocolate Brownies

Here are two brownie recipes. The first uses 8 oz. of unsweetened chocolate. Look at all of the sugar that is used to balance that! The second calls for semisweet chocolate. The difference between the two recipes is pretty clear.

Brownies made with unsweetened chocolate (100% chocolate)

8- 1 ounce squares of unsweetened chocolate
1 cup butter
5 eggs
3 cups sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
1-1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt

Brownies made with semisweet chocolate

8 ounces semisweet chocolate
1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup all-purpose flour

Note that, even though both recipes call for 8 ounces of chocolate, there is a full 2 1/4 cup reduction in sugar in the recipe that calls for semisweet chocolate! The semisweet recipe also halves the butter and reduces the number of eggs. This is most likely because there is more cocoa butter in the unsweetened chocolate than there is in the semi-sweet chocolate.

Since the semisweet chocolate also contains less chocolate (maybe as much as 65% less, depending on the semisweet chocolate used), not as many eggs are needed to balance out the drying effect of the cocoa solids contained in the chocolate.

How To Make These Brownies

To make either version of the brownies, melt together the chocolate and butter. Stir until smooth and then cool. Whisk in the sugar by hand, followed by the eggs, one at a time. Stir in the vanilla and then the flour. You can add toasted nuts as well, if you’d like. Pour into a greased and lined pan (8” x 8” for thicker brownies and 9”x 13” for thinner brownies) and bake at 325F until done.

To Temper or Not to Temper

There is no need to temper chocolate that is going to be used in a recipe. Melting it is sufficient. The goal of tempering is to get the cocoa butter to crystallize in its most stable form, and, since it melts at body temperature anyway, tempering would be a waste of time in a batter that will go in the oven at temperatures well in excess of 98F!

The time to temper is when you want the chocolate to stand on its own—either as a coating for truffles or molded candies or for decoration. Tempering is not difficult, but it can be a little fussy. There are many excellent resources on the web that can walk you through the process.

If you want to make candy but do not want to go through the trouble of tempering the chocolate, you can use chocolate coatings. These can be found in craft stores or grocery stores. In my opinion, these products do not taste very good, partly because of the substitution of other fats for cocoa butter.

You can make your own, good tasting coating chocolate using this simple formula: chocolate and a neutral oil together in a 10 to 1 ratio. So, for ten ounces of chocolate, you’ll need 1 ounce of vegetable oil. For 5 ounces, you’ll need ½ ounce (1 tablespoon). The addition of the vegetable fat will allow the chocolate to firm up and maintain a sheen without needing to be tempered.


3 Responses to ' Chocolate Brownies Recipe '

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  1. Norbridge Antiques said,

    on April 18th, 2009 at 9:23 am

    I enjoyed reading this and will try your recipes. Being a bit of a health nut, I don’t make cakes very often. Can you let me know if I should stir very lightly or mix thoroughly (how long)?

  2. Lauren said,

    on October 20th, 2009 at 10:31 pm

    Delicious recipe. I tried the version with unsweetened chocolate. Do the two result in a similar brownie? If baked in a 9×13 pan, how long do you recommend baking? I baked mine for about 45 minutes and am not sure if I should have taken them out sooner. They are very rich, but more of a fluffy brownie. Can you recommend a variation that would result in a more dense brownie (less fluffy). Thanks for sharing!

  3. RG said,

    on October 23rd, 2009 at 7:47 am

    Hi Lauren, great questions so I asked my friend Chef Jenni for some answers and here is what she had to say,

    Often, the “fluffiness” or “denseness” of a brownie is the product of the mixing method. In my experience, brownies made by hands by the method in these two recipes–melting chocolate and butter, stirring in sugar, then eggs, then the dry ingredients–are more fudgy and dense than brownies made by creaming together the fat and sugar as the first step. The less air whipped into a brownie, the more dense/fudgy the end result.

    As to whether the brownies are similar, unsweetened chocolate contains more chocolate per ounce than semisweet chocolate (part of the ounce of semisweet is taken up with sugar), so brownies made with unsweetened chocolate tend to be more chocolatey than brownies made with semisweet chocolate. For me, the recipe using unsweetened chocolate is a more grown-up brownie. The recipe based on semisweet is more kid-friendly (sweeter and less deeply chocolate).

    It’s really hard for me to say when brownies are “done.” If you’re looking for a dense, fudgy brownie, you’ll want to underbake them slightly. The longer they bake, the “cakier” they get as all the proteins in the eggs coagulate and the moisture evaporates out. As a starting point, try baking at 325F for about 30 minutes. Test them by poking them in the center of the pan with a toothpick. If it comes up wet and gooey, give them a few more minutes. If it comes up with wet crumbs, you’re there. There’s really no way to be more specific than that, but again, this gives you a place to start.

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