The Baked Brownie (with some additions)

Baked Malted Brownie

So I have noticed all over the blogosphere that the brownie recipe from Baked in NYC is the big thing – and everyone is trying it out. So I thought I would too – with a few touches of my own. Admittedly, I am NOT a baker – put me in a kitchen with random savory items and I can make a delicious meal – put me in that same kitchen with flour, butter, and sugar and well … I am a bit lost. But I have made a promise to myself to become a better baker and on my journey thought I would try the “it” brownie everyone is talking about. Now it may be my inexperience in the baking realm or my decidedly different addition of malted milk powder ( I really, really have been craving a chocolate malted milkshake but have been sick and didn’t want to go out for the ingredients) but I really am not digging these brownies – a bit too dense, the top is not nearly crunchy enough for my taste, and they are extremely buttery – almost overly so. They do look lovely though!

Here is the recipe I used. If anyone out there can tell me what I might have done wrong, please let me know!

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons dark unsweetened cocoa powder
11 ounces dark chocolate (I used an artisan bittersweet chocolate here), coarsely chopped
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces, at room temperature
1 teaspoon instant espresso powder 1/2 cup of malted milk powder
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
5 large eggs, at room temperature
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract (oops, I forgot to add this at the end!)

Ingredients

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Butter the sides and bottom of a 9 x 13 glass or light-colored metal baking pan and cover with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, salt and cocoa powder together.

Put the chocolate, butter, and instant espresso powder malted milk powder in a large bowl and set it over a saucepan of simmering water, stirring occasionally, until the chocolate and butter are completely melted and smooth. Turn off the heat, but keep the bowl over the water and add the sugars. Whisk until completely combined, then remove the bowl from the pan. The mixture should be room temperature.

Add 3 eggs to the chocolate mixture and whisk until combined (I whisked all of the eggs together first then added them slowly to the chocolate mixture). Add the remaining eggs and whisk until combined. Add the vanilla and stir until combined (oops!).

Do not overbeat the batter at this stage or your brownies will be cakey. Sprinkle the flour mixture over the chocolate mixture. Using a spatula (crap, here’s where I might have started to go wrong…), fold the flour mixture into the chocolate until just a bit of the flour mixture is visible. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top.

Bake in the center of the oven for 30 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through the baking time, until a toothpick inserted into the center of the brownies comes out with a few moist crumbs sticking to it. Let the brownies cool completely, then cut them into squares and serve.

Tightly covered with plastic wrap, the brownies keep at room temperature for up to 3 days.

See pretty but not as good as I had hoped…

The finished product

 

 

14 Oct This entry was published on 03/04/11 at 5:17 -07:0010 and is filed under Culinary Experiments. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.