Among the numerous baking mysteries out there, I believe one of the million dollar problems is how to make brownies more cake-like.
Most people have a preference for fudge-y brownies or cake-y brownies, and it’s useful to know what alterations you may make to produce either effect.
Personally, I like both, and as a long-time brownie enthusiast, I’ve maintained favored recipes for at least one of both in my arsenal. My mother’s traditional recipe was much more fudge-like.
But who doesn’t desire a cake-like brownie, the type you can get at your neighborhood coffee shop and pair with a decent cup of coffee?
Before you learn how to prepare cake-like brownies, decide whether to bake them in a glass or metal pan.
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What is a cake-like brownie?
Cake has a similar feel to brownies, but it is more intricate than that.
A cake-like brownie’s crumb should be lighter, fluffier, and generally softer and less dense. A fudge-like brownie, on the other hand, should have a rich chocolaty taste with a moist and chewy texture.
Brownies do not have a reputation for being picky since most recipes follow a tried and tested process. Yet, in this scenario, the most crucial adjustments are to the materials themselves or the process of mixing those elements.
But wait, then what is a fudge-like brownie?
Maybe we might start with what makes a brownie fudge-like, which is what most people want. The traditional brownie recipe goes somewhat like this:
1. Melt the butter 2. Add sugar, 3. Add an egg, 4. Add chocolate, 5. Add flour, and 6. Bake
In this scenario, melting the materials is critical. It distinguishes brownie batter from most other typical baked items such as cookies, muffins, cakes, and pastries.
In the baking world, melting components before mixing them should result in a more thin, moist, dense, or fudge-y final.
Consider thin, chewy cookies and thick desserts. Softened or chilled butter produces a fluffier texture and a lighter crumb in cakes and biscuits.
Consider the case of making pastry with melted butter. Imagine mixing cold butter into flour in one bowl, finally making a lovely ball of dough, spreading it out, and baking it to a crisp and raised crust. Melted butter should be added to the flour in the other bowl.
My hunch is that you’ll end up with a liquid or paste rather than anything like dough.
Baking it would most likely result in something thin, greasy, and crisp. What would happen if you tried? I’m not sure there’s a term for it!
What about ingredients?
The components themselves are the second most crucial factor to consider. A normal brownie recipe includes the following ingredients:
Eggs with a buttery flavor Chocolate Granulated sugar Flour Baking soda Salt
The components are not dissimilar to those found in a cookie. Of course, there are some differences (cookies often use a mix of brown and white sugar or just brown, whereas brownies usually use only white at least in my experience).
The flour, eggs, and butter should all be the same, but as we’ve mentioned, how you make it is crucial. Drop and cut-out cookies are often made with cold or room temperature butter.
Speaking of ingredients, find out what to swap in your brownies when you’re lacking one.
or a reduction in sugar would likely result in a softer, fluffier texture, more akin to cake. After all, sugar dissolves and should be treated like a liquid in baked items. If we think about what produces a cake-like cookie, most of us would say an increase in flour, butter, and sugar.
When granulated sugar is placed in an oven for an extended amount of time, it melts. More sugar results in a moister product!
There is, of course, a difference in the kind of sugar used; brown sugar produces a softer and chewier result, whilst granulated sugar produces those wonderful crisp edges that we all yearn for in a brownie. At least, I do.
This adjustment of butter and sugar (crispy-cakey-or-chewy-how-do-you-like-your-chocolate-chip-cookies) is described in a very basic and plain manner. I’m a visual learner, so putting these concepts into video format makes them much simpler to grasp. 1099220www.marthastewart.com This Martha Stewart article and video (http:
As seen in the video, a simple tweak to the butter and sugar ratios, as well as a switch from brown to white sugar, may radically alter the texture and look of a cookie.
How can I apply this to brownies?
The simplest alteration you could make, in my view, would be to tweak your flour. The other components should stay unchanged since any changes to one ingredient would inevitably reduce the ratio of others.
Since brownies are essentially composed of oil, eggs, sugar, and flour, increasing the flour ratio reduces the ratio of fat and sugar by default, resulting in a softer, less chewy, and dense dessert.
If you don’t like thick or oily brownies, try substituting a little bit of the butter with something else that adds moisture but not fat, such applesauce.
While melting the butter before baking results in an oilier product, it is feasible to use a substitute to obtain a lighter texture.
When you modify more than one item in baking, you are sometimes required to adjust numerous others in order to get the desired balance. Try adjusting your flour first to make things simpler for yourself.
If you want more, replace a part of the butter with something lighter. If you want to go any farther, you might substitute some of the sugar with apple sauce.
Regrettably, the procedure for creating brownies (melting the butter, etc.) is critical to what makes a brownie a brownie and should not be changed.
Best wishes for your brownie-making adventures, and if you’re feeling ambitious, use the brownie mix to create a cake!