Brownies 101

I don't love baking for the mouthwatering smell of bread ready to come out of the oven, for the satisfying crunch of perfect macarons, nor even for the finger-licking goodness of freshly made lemon curd. Those are just the benefits. I love baking for the satisfaction of having bread come out with a crackling crust thanks to a recipe all my own; for the feeling I get when I achieve the perfect silky texture of a well-made buttercream. I love baking because I love the feeling of getting that perfect texture and knowing exactly why I got it. The science of baking absolutely fascinates me. It's what keeps me coming back into the kitchen day after day. Is it completely frustrating sometimes (like when you realize that there's really nothing quite like gelatin, which means no gummy bears for your newly vegetarian self)? Yes. But I'm absolutely hooked.

I'll warn you right now. This is going to be a long post.

So let's start by talking about the different characteristics of brownies.

• Crust: The shiny, crunchy, and paper thin top layer (or lack thereof).
• Cakey: The airy, slightly more dry and spongey texture in a brownie.
• Fudgy: The almost gooey, dense texture in a brownie.
• Soft: A more fall-apart, delicate sort of quality.
• Firm: When you bite into a firm brownie, you can see your toothmarks plainly. Often super dense.

Seems like a lot, no? But to me, that's awesome. That means that much more choice in my brownie making.

For a Crust:

• The crust is totally dependent on eggs in your brownie. According again to BakeWise (and you can see this for yourself if you pull some off of your next batch) the shiny crust on top of some brownies is actually a thin layer of meringue. Which means that whether or not your brownies get a crust depends on how much you beat the batter after the eggs are added. That being said, don't feel like you have to beat for 5 or 10 minutes after you add the eggs. All you really need is a minute or so for a great crust.
   

For a Cakey texture:

• Two main factors determine the cakey-ness (it's my blog, I'll make up adjectives when it suits me) of a brownie: the amount of flour and the use of leaveners.
• For a cakey texture, the ratio of fat to flour (fat in the form of chocolate and butter) should be somewhere around to 2:1.
• For a cakey texture, it also helps to use leaveners (i.e. baking powder) like you would in a cake. Remember that 1 tsp of baking powder (or 1/4 tsp of baking soda) leavens 1 cup of flour.
• To some extent, eggs also make a difference. So use a few eggs for an added cakey texutre.

For a Fudgy texture:

• The idea here is not to put too much flour into the batter, so that it doesn't form its nice rigid flour structure. The ratio of fat to flour is something like 3:1 or 4:1.
• Also, (this is related more to the fudgy taste) use flavors that bring out the taste of chocolate more, like espresso, molasses, or brown sugar.
• Go easy on the eggs.

For Softness:

• For a soft brownie, butter should be the primary fat. Butter is very soft at room temperature. This doesn't change much after baking. The fat will return to its state of softness at a given temperature. To maintain the chocolatey taste in these brownies, use cocoa powder (but don't factor cocoa powder in with flour when you do your ratio math).

For Firmness:

• For a firm brownie, chocolate should play a major role as a fat. Chocolate, unlike butter, is hard at room temperature. So after it's baked and brought back to room temperature, a brownie with a lot of chocolate will be firm as well.

And there you have it, everything you need to make your own perfect brownie recipe. Remember to taste as you go, too. Is the batter not quite sweet enough? Add some sugar. Not rich enough? Add another egg. And always a tiny bit of salt. Remember that they're your brownies, and they can taste however you like them. 

Any questions I didn't answer? Any characteristics I forgot?

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