I should give up baking, except my daughter loves it so much. We made rich, fudgy brownies cake according to the rich, fudgy brownies recipe we found in this summer’s fine Cooking’s Grilling magazine. Ok, I cheated and only used 1 cup of sugar instead of 2, but that shouldn’t make it into a cake, right? What did we do wrong?
What we used:
- 1 cup of unsalted butter
- 2/3 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1 cup granulated sugar (recipe calls for 2)
- 4 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 2/3 cup unsweetened natural cocoa powder
- 1/2 tsp baking POWDER
- 1/2 tsp table salt
How we made it:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- Butter and flour a 9-inch-square metal baking pan
- In a medium saucepan, melt butter over medium heat, and then remove from heat.
- Whisk or stir in the sugar, then all four eggs, and vanilla. Stir until smooth and uniform.
- Spread batter into prepared baking pan; be sure to smooth it to fill the pan evenly.
- Bake for 40 minutes; toothpick or skewer should come out with a few moist clumps clinging to it.
- Cool in the pan on a rack.
- Cut into 16 servings. Wrap in foil. Freezable.
Comments:
Hmm, my brownies are cake-like. With an electric oven, it is probably best to bake for 35 minutes and then keep checking. What do you think I did wrong?
Oh well, next time, I will use the full ingredients. On a happier note, Mads loved every crumb of it. I’m sure her father will, too.
Actually, it is REALLY good warm with chocolate ice cream. YUM!
6 responses so far ↓
jim // June 24, 2009 at 6:30 pm |
I’m new to baking myself and every time I don’t follow the recipe I usually end up with something that is rather quite different from what I expected.
You didn’t follow the recipe when you only used half the sugar. Are you actually surprised you ended up with a cake?
bubblesncups // June 24, 2009 at 6:39 pm |
Yes, actually, I am surprised because I have used less sugar in other recipes. I now understand the role of sugar is not just for the sweetness, but it helps with the layering of the brownie. I used about 1 and 1/4 cup of sugar, but same difference, right? I think the most important factor is the baking time; I was distracted from checking before the timer went off. It tastes fine, just looks too fluffy. I’ll have to try it again because we love brownies!
jim // June 24, 2009 at 7:30 pm |
Sounds like you still left about 3/4 cups of sugar out of the recipe which is about 40% of the total amount. That seems significant.
Next time you make these brownies follow the recipe and you may be surprised with the results.
Happy baking!
bubblesncups // June 24, 2009 at 7:49 pm |
Will do!
Sarah // June 25, 2009 at 9:17 am |
Actually, halving the sugar is exactly what will make it cake-like. Sugar contributes to the structure, not just the sweetness of anything baked, so halving the amount can really wreak havoc. Though these don’t look half bad!
bubblesncups // June 25, 2009 at 5:23 pm |
they were fine =)