With the pace of life picking up as it has been lately, I haven’t had many opportunities to bake desserts. Nearly all of my baking lately has been associated with Tuesdays with Dorie. Making a dessert that someone else chooses for you is fine when it’s one recipe in many, but when it’s all that you ever get to bake…well, it’s tempting to tweak the recipe to something that’s more fun for you, whether the fun is in the eating or the making.
For these white chocolate brownies, it meant skipping the meringue, raspberries, orange zest, and ground almonds for various reasons, most having to do with laziness. It certainly sounds like I was trying to make these as bland as possible, doesn’t it? To play up the mild sweet flavor of white chocolate, I used vanilla sugar instead of regular sugar. I also used cake flour instead of regular, thinking that the lower gluten content of cake flour would mimic the combination of higher gluten all-purpose flour and no-gluten ground almonds.
After baking, I couldn’t decide if I wanted to present this as a cake or as brownies. The white chocolate flavor is subtle, although you can find it if you’re looking. The texture is light and fluffy and moist, just like a perfect vanilla cake. In the end, I defaulted to laziness again. Brownies don’t require any additional topping like a cake would, so these are brownies. Good brownies, in a light fluffy cakey kind of way. Plus, if I ever need a white chocolate cake recipe, I’m good to go!
Marthe chose this recipe, and she has it posted. Other than the changes listed above, I doubled the salt. A lot of TWD members had problems with their brownies coming out of the oven undercooked after the recommended baking time, but since I skipped the meringue and made a quarter of the recipe, the baking time in the book wasn’t relevant to me anyway.
One year ago: Cappuccino Muffins
Two years ago: French Chocolate Brownies
It looks light and fluffy like the best cake. It is hard to believe these are brownies. They were good, though.
I made changes too. I had no raspberries, only blueberries and did not like the combo of chocolate and blueberries. I made a strawberry sauce for the top so my brownies are very much like yours.
I love the plate you are using, showcases the brownie cake beautifully.
I love the idea of white chocolate brownies…would be great with some fruit and whipped cream.
See, you just made a stripped down version – and it totally worked! Although I do think calling these brownies is false advertisement…
Oh, my god. OH MY GOD. Why have I never thought of this before? Dorie does it again! Why do we call blondies, brownies without chocolate? Why not just SUBSTITUTE THE COLOUR OF THE CHOCOLATE! Gosh, this is so exciting. Thanks! XDDD (I suppose you could call them whities. But then again that might sound racist. :P)
Wei-Wei
Glad these worked out for you. They look quite thick which makes them look rich. YUM!
Looks delicious! Even without all of the extra stuff! What a fun way to improvise!
I did something totally different as well.
Yours look wonderful.
Great changes, looks yummy!
Wow, this sounds amazing.
yum… the colors and presentation look fantastic!
mine morphed into Salty/Sweet Brown Butter Frosted Brownies!
Just like you, i made some changes… lol
I think your changes were great, especially adding the extra salt. I do that with a lot of the TWD recipes. I love raspberries, but I think adding them is a lot of what made my brownies soggy. Nice job!
Rather thick don’t you think? 🙂 Wonderful job – mine were so thin they almost disappeared! Nicely done – they look perfectly baked and no need for a topping!
These look amazing!
very cool changes. It looks so fluffy and delicious. I love vanilla sugar!
Oh no. Nononono. I am so NOT reading this and not drooling over my computer, when I had just resolved to eat a little less chocolate before summer sizzle…!
I made a lot of changes this week too and thought the brownies turned out ok, though I wouldn’t go so far as to say they were a repeat for me. In cake form (minus the berries) I’m much more likely to bake them again. Great pics – glad they were a hit for you 🙂
Those look like the fluffiest, most amazing brownies. Or are they blondies? Hmmm…:)
This is such a unique idea! I have never heard of, or seen, brownies like these. They must be out of this world delicious!
Georgia – Unique ideas are Dorie Greenspan’s specialty. 🙂
Yours does look like a perfect white chocolate cake. I’m definitely going to have to try your tweaking sometime.
i didn’t think mine were so brownie-like either…more like a tea cake. i love how fluffy yours looks, though…must be the cake flour? i’ll keep that switch in mind if i’m ever looking for a white chocolate cake, too!
Does anyone know where I can find some chocolate diet recipes for free?
cool! I tried to make white chocolate molten cakes once. Just by subbing white chocolate for the bittersweet called for. And let me tell you, it did NOT work out. This looks really good though!
Hi, I’d like to make this, following the changes you made. May I know at what temp. did you bake this and for how long? And when you said you made a quarter of the recipe, did you mean you scaled everything down to a quarter? Thanks!
Elle – Yes, I divided every ingredient by four. I baked it at the same temperature recommended in the original recipe. I don’t remember the baking time, but it was probably somewhere around 20-25 minutes for a 5-inch round pan. Whenever recipes are scaled down, it’s really important to watch for signs of done-ness (a clean toothpick inserted into the middle of the pa, in this case) instead of relying on the recipe’s recommended baking times.
This looks like such a moist, fluffy cake. I can’t believe they are supposed to be brownies!