You can laugh, based on years on my often-but-not-always-positive critiques of Dorie’s recipes, but I actually think I’m pretty open-minded about desserts. For example, I definitely already have a favorite brownie recipe. It’s evenly balanced between cakey and fudgy, which is exactly how I like my brownies. When one report after another started rolling in that these brownies were ultra gooey, I started to get the feeling that they wouldn’t be my style.
But you know what they would be? Brownies. And that is a very good thing.
I did reduce the butter a bit, not so much in an effort to change the texture of the brownies or to be healthier, but just because I happened to have 7 tablespoons (for a half recipe, which called for 8 tablespoons) handy when I was baking these.
I don’t know if it was the slightly reduced amount of butter or because I baked the half recipe for the same time Dorie recommends baking the full recipe, but these brownies ended up with my perfect brownie texture. They were nice and rich, but still firm enough to hold their shape like a brownie should. Once they were cut into near bite-sized squares, they were perfectly irresistible.
Tanya of Chocolatechic, appropriately enough, chose these brownies for Tuesdays with Dorie, and she has the recipe posted.
One year ago: Floating Islands
Hi Bridget — Finally delurking to comment on these. I’m not a member of TWD, but I saw these were up and I thought it was a good excuse to try a new brownie recipe. 😉 Against my better judgment (like you, I live in a small household of just Husband and me), I made the full batch, and they were like soup in the middle! I love me some brownie batter, but after 40 minutes of baking, I was really annoyed to have brownie soup as a result (not that it didn’t taste good). So my question for you is what kind of pan did you use for your half batch? Since Dorie calls for a 9×9 for the full batch, I opted not to mess around with pan sizes. You seem to be skilled at reducing, though, so I implore you to enlighten me!
Jill – I just used a 4.5 by 9-inch loaf pan. So my pan was actually exactly half of what Dorie recommends (which almost never happens). Maybe using a little less butter did make a big difference in the final texture. I don’t know if you read the Problems and Questions thread on the TWD blog, but a lot of people had the same experience as you. Which would have annoyed me too, although I have to admit that right now, brownie batter sounds really delicious. 🙂
I’m not a fudgy brownie person generally, but I really liked these! I baked a half recipe in a 9-inch square pan so my brownies were thin but no gooey or underbaked issues. I’ll have to give the CI brownies a try next to see how they compare to these.
Excellent, I like the loaf pan plan! And maybe I’ll feel less indulgent when I eat half a tray of small-batch brownies…
Your brownies look amazing! I’m so glad you loved them so much! Mine were very intensely chocolatey…but I enjoyed them!
Jill – I cut the loaf pan into 18 tiny squares, and I ate 7 of them on Sunday. It seemed totally decadent, but later I realized that it’s really equivalent to only one big brownie!
Oops, I just realized that I used a 9 by 5-inch loaf pan, not 9 by 4.5-inch. So it was a bit bigger than the size Dorie recommends.
Another 5 star TWD recipe. I baked them in muffin tins because one can never get enough ‘edges’.
I halved the recipe too but I ended up baking for 35 minutes. I used a 9x6x2 pyrex but you’d think yours would take longer b/c brownies are thicker, no? Oh wait. Now I just confused myself. This happens a lot. Don’t be alarmed. 😛
Looks great! I want to half this (I’m making it tonight!), too.
Great job! They look so delicious!
Mmmmmmm ooey gooey brownies…my favorite!
those look truly perfect!! i could go thru that whole plate–hehe!
We can’t do bite-sized here…too easy to walk by the plate and pop one after the other into the mouth! Yours look perfect!
If holding shape is your concern, you might be interested to know that even doing the recipe as-written with all the gooeyness, they do stay in neat little squares when sliced (see my blog for a picture). The middle is melty, but they don’t collapse or run or anything.
Fudgey and Gooey. Perfect. Yours look GREAT!!
I love the look of the brownies piled sky high on each other. Looks like theyre just waiting for be eaten!
It must be the butter, or maybe baking it a little longer, since your brownies look so much more ‘firmer’
We had a friend visiting from out of town. For some reason, in our house, that means I make brownies. As the brownies were baking we played cards. The brownies came out and we “waited” for them to cool. I poured some milk to go with the warm chocolate yumminess. We never finished the game because we couldn’t stop eating these!!! They are wonderful!!! This one is a keeper!