(I wrote this for the blog I was keeping back in 2009, so it is mainly written in the present tense, but was, in fact, written in summer of 2009.)
The Challenge: I LOVE brownies! But as it turns out, I have yet to find a good brownie recipe. I have recently purchased two new cookbooks and between them they have 3 plain chocolate brownie recipes (not to mention swirled and flavored brownies). So my goal is to compare the 3 different types of brownies and see which I like the most. To do so I will make all 3 brownies today. On a rather related quest, I have always wanted to make brownies that can transport easily. Then it hit me, they don’t have to be made in a pan and cut up, they can be individual sized to start with. So now I just have to find the right pan to do that in. I am going to try mini muffin and regular muffin pans. Hopefully this will work.
The Contenders:
Batch 1: Ghirardelli Fudgy Chocolate Brownies. These were quite simple to make and only use one bowl and no electric mixer, so clean up was a breeze as well. They bake on a low heat for a long time, so they seem like they will stay very moist even in the minis, always a good thing.
Batch 2: Ghiradelli Classic Chocolate Brownies. These were slightly harder to make. Still no mixer, but you have to sift the flour before you mix it in, which isn’t hard, but an extra step none the less. I substituted bittersweet chocolate chips for semisweet, because the batter seemed overly sweet. In future, I’ll have to use dark brown sugar instead of light brown (the recipe says you can use either, and I am currently out of dark brown, so I used light brown which seems to have made the batter a little too sweet). But you never know, an overly sweet batter doesn’t always mean an overly sweet brownie.
Batch 3: Martha Stewart Double Chocolate Brownies. The double chocolate part had to do with using melted semisweet chocolate AND unsweetened coco powder. Even though these use less chocolate than batch 1 (and more than batch 2), the coco powder should make them the most chocolate-y of all the batches. It’s important to note that these are the hardest to make, I used 3 bowls, and an electric mixer, but still they’re not difficult and the batter tastes the best, though that doesn’t always indicate the best final product...
The Outcome:
Batch 1 is indeed fudgy. They are slightly cake-y, but only around the edges, the center is fudgy, almost to the point of gooey. Not too sweet, quite chocolate-y. It made 6 regular-sized muffins and 12 mini-muffins.
Batch 2 is definitely more my cup of tea than batch 1. They aren’t too sweet. And even though the batter is slightly less chocolate-y, the chocolate chips added enough chocolate to the mix. They were cake-ier than batch 1 but were still soft and a little fudgy in the middle. It made 6 regular-sized muffins and 18 mini-muffins.
Batch 3 is my favorite. They are chocolate-ier than batch 2 and cake-ier than batch 1. Really, they are the perfect balance of cake-y and fudgy through out, rather than cake-y around the edges and fudgy in the center. The only downside, is I do miss the chocolate chips from batch 2. I think in future I’ll make these with chips added in. That will make them close to perfect! It made 6 regular-sized muffins and 18 mini-muffins.
As for the muffin sizing, it worked great! The regular size muffins cooked almost as long as the brownies would cook for normally, but the minis cook for significantly less. They all came out moist and delicious. Maybe they all would have been slightly better baked normally in a brownie pan, but I don’t mind. The convenience of the little 2 bite brownies out weighs any imperfection making them mini might have caused.
The Votes are Tallied:
Batch 3 was my favorite with batch 2 a close second and batch 1 bringing up the rear with a bronze metal. But I’m only one person, I wanted to know what other people think. I happen to be lucky enough that my mom, pops and 4 family friends were all willing to taste them! 3 of the 4 adults agreed with me that batch 3 was the best, however one voted for the dark horse in the competition, batch 1. Both kids preferred batch 2, they loved the oozy chocolate chips. I also asked another friend his opinion, and while he liked batch 1 the most, I believe his exact words were “but I’d eat another of any of them!” I also received one last round of results which added three to batch 1. So, batch 1 was the favorite with the public, followed closely by batch 3, with batch 2 as the favorite of all the kids but coming in third among adults. (Note: all but that first vote for batch 1 were from later days, perhaps that means that batch 3 is still the best on the day of baking, but that batch 1 ages better.)
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| Clockwise from top: Batch 1, Batch 2, Batch 3 |
