The Journey to Perfection: A Brownie Evolution

As we embarked on our latest baking adventure, I couldn't help but feel a sense of excitement and trepidation. We were about to attempt to create the perfect brownie, one that would surpass all others in terms of texture, flavor, and overall appeal. The journey was going to be long, but with each step, we were one step closer to achieving our goal.

Our first step was to start with a solid foundation - a control group of sorts. We took a batch of brownies that had already been tested and refined, using them as our starting point for comparison. This would allow us to see how much we could improve upon their existing characteristics without compromising their overall quality. The question on everyone's mind was whether driving off all the water content from this control group would be decisive in determining the success of our latest batch.

We decided to proceed with the experiment, as it seemed like a crucial step in refining our recipe. Our next challenge was deciding between two options: baking at 400 degrees Fahrenheit versus 375 degrees Fahrenheit. We opted for the lower temperature, as we felt that it would produce a better texture and overall quality. The decision paid off, as the brownies turned out to be perfectly moist and rich.

Next, we decided to take another approach - one that involved bringing back the brown butter element but without making any other changes. This was an interesting twist, as we had previously struggled with achieving the perfect balance of flavors. However, this time around, it yielded a different texture - one that was drier and more crumbly than expected. It was both gratifying and maddening, as we realized that even small adjustments could have significant consequences on our final product.

We took another approach, bringing back the brown butter element once again but this time keeping all other ingredients unchanged. The result was a brownie that was more balanced in terms of sweetness and richness. We were pleased to see that the sugar level was still relatively high, but it had become more manageable. The addition of chocolate chips seemed like a nice touch, as they added a welcome burst of flavor to each bite.

As we continued our experimentation, we began to feel like we were getting closer to our platonic ideal of a brownie. We started testing different variations - one that involved using bittersweet chocolate instead of regular chocolate, and another that kept the brown butter element but dropped the sugar level by a cup. These tests allowed us to refine our recipe further and push it towards the perfect zone.

After many trials and tribulations, we finally arrived at a moment of truth. We had narrowed down our options to two final candidates - one that was a classic blend of ingredients, and another that incorporated bittersweet chocolate with reduced sugar levels. The choice was clear: which one would emerge victorious as our ultimate brownie creation?

The verdict was unanimous - both brownies were excellent in their own right, but the control group, with its perfect balance of flavors and texture, took the top spot. We couldn't believe it; after all the hard work and experimentation, we had finally achieved perfection. The final product was rich, fudgy, and utterly delicious, with a satisfying crunch that added to its appeal.

Our journey to creating the perfect brownie had been long and arduous, but it had ultimately led us to a moment of triumph. We learned that sometimes, simplicity can be key - our double-boiler method, which we had initially dismissed as too complicated, proved to be the secret ingredient that made all the difference.

As we looked back on our journey, we realized that the evolution of the perfect brownie was not just about refining a recipe but also about understanding the complexities of flavor and texture. We experimented with different ingredients, techniques, and temperatures until we found the perfect balance. The end result was well worth the effort - a brownie that would satisfy even the most discerning palates.

And so, as we shared our creation with others, we knew that it was not just about creating a delicious dessert but also about sharing a story of perseverance and passion. Our journey to perfection had been long, but the end result was well worth it - a brownie that would be remembered for years to come.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enI spent the last 2 days making all of these brownies to find the perfect one this took 1 and 1/2 lbs of chocolate chips a pound of cocoa powder 5 lb of chocolate $30 worth of vanilla extract nine batches of brownies for a total of 144 brownies I want to show you how I develop my perfect brownie recipe my perfect brownie it's three things I've been giving this a lot of thought probably too much thought a crackly smooth kind of glossy top a texture that is fudgy but you know by fudgy I think we mean chewy really deep really rich flavor so game plan V1 we're going for more Savory I think you just have to start somewhere informed by some of the recipes that I've seen and that I've cooked myself and that I know work Mark bittman's brownies for the New York Times ultimate chewy brownies King Arthur flow Catherine hurns brownies this is on Epicurious via Ruth richel in Gourmet it's a tangled web just want to get my dry ingredients set so I'm using a half cup of flour a teaspoon of salt Dutch processed cocoa powder it has deeper richer chocolate flavor one stick of butter browned if there's an opportunity to introduce a little bit extra flavor brown sugar instead of white sugar a little bit of whole wheat flour in addition to AP or just white flour I go for it Browning butter drives out the water content from the butter and when you toast those milk solids you develop all those wonderful nutty flavors and Aromas it's going to be actively Savory the question is are people going to be willing to do it I want to use both cocoa powder and melted chocolate bar chocolate is adding fat here it's also adding body to these brownies the question is how do you get that mixture to form like just ever so slight of a crumb using too much melted chocolate it's you're going to have like an outrageously chocolate brownie but like at one point is it almost not even a brownie anymore okay so that's 100 G of granulated sugar do we do the light brown or do we really go for it with the dark brown dark brown sugar would just have like a higher proportion of molasses content here and flavor-wise maybe a click past where we want to be maybe we'll go light brown what dissolves sugar water but remember we drove all of the water content out of brown butter and the chocolate doesn't really have any appreciable water content yeah I'm not really noticing that the sugar is melting appreciably here one of the things that I'm trying to go for here is a crackly top it's really the kind of melting of the sugar interacting with the eggs which are kind of forming minimal layer of merang on top of the brownies that's kind of forming and Rising as they bake I hate when the measuring spoons still have the rain just like separate them why do you want them all attached so I'm doing 2 tpoon of vanilla all right definitely noticing a texture change now this is like a very tight cake batter dry ingredients kind of stir them in just so I don't overwork this mixture it's a very thick mixture releases almost semi clean from the bowl definitely with the addition of the eggs I noticed a big difference and I do want to spread this out it is reading a little tight to me but we'll see how it bakes up the proof is certainly in the brownie as they say another assumption I'm making is that like let's start this first attempt at 350 which is pretty standard but knowing that some brownie recipes do occasionally call for baking temperature of as much as 400 which I think is a way of kind of getting like a crispier edge coupled with like a gooier center but let's see one thing a brownie should not be is underbaked I'm not like the neatest Baker that's why like I find it honestly like baking at home not the most relaxing just like anticipating the clean up everybody wants to help it's like the tiniest bit of like moist crumb attached I think we're good there the top feels like pretty nice and set there are some good things happening here in terms of having like a little bit of a crackly top is it good is it bad I don't know a hot brownie by default is almost always delicious so I think we need to throw this in the fridge before we can even talk about it it's only when things set to room temp that you can really see oh is this truly crispy Jammy chewy all of the things I want to see from the side how does that look there's a little bit of structure here and it kind of devolves into this layer of sort of like indeterminate fudge I'm kind of looking at how you have a little bit more of this height and structure around the edge this brownie is too intense it's too chocolatey and just lacking a certain amount of like structure and or even water give me a little bit of like more height a little bit more kind of openness I'm worried about texture and flavor the two things I think are are real deficits here are the decisions we made in terms of the interventions around the butter the light brown sugar did that really make a difference I don't know like are you reading the brown butter against the backdrop of 6 oz of bittersweet chocolate and a half cup of D Dutch processed cocoa powder maybe not V2 inspired to an extent by the Simplicity of Ruth richel and the mark bitman what happens when you incorporate a higher proportion of melted chocolate versus cocoa bittman's got half a cup of AP flour Ruth Rael has a/4 cup of AP flour what if we did a/4 cup of cocoa and 1/4 cup of flour bit's got 3 oz of unsweetened this bar is 4 oz so wouldn't it be nice to just use the 4 oz of unsweetened one stick butter but we're not going to Brown it I'm just melting the chocolate and the butter together this is decidedly simpler than having to Brown the butter in a separate pan 1 and 1/4 cup sugar no brown sugar in this version different proportions of the same ingredients will have different outcomes the number of people who are like oh but like you just like took the same ingredients that so and so used and then just like did different quantities and it was like yeah wow thank you for paying attention all right this is version two didn't have the crackly top which I'm not entirely surprised by I'm honestly surprised that we did get such a pronounced crackly top with V1 it also feels overly dark and overly Savory the texture is maybe a slight Improvement versus V1 but it's still reading pretty brooding pretty dark and kind of heavy would brown butter even if I had used it show up against that level of intensity coming from the chocolate flavor probably not my instinct is to frankly add more flour and add an egg to just kind of keep that chocolatin but just kind of stretch it out over something a little bit lighter and taller and bring a little bit more kind of cakiness kind of back into it what would that do that's what I think is so interesting right it's like it can be a brownie and it can fit the brief check all the boxes and still feel wrong you didn't necessarily create something exceptional it works but is it great not at all what I'm thinking is maybe we work this from both sides we take what we like about V1 and we try to continue to refine it so pull back some of the chocolate pull back some of the cocoa see if maybe just going to all granulated sugar will give us a little bit more of that kind of crispiness around the edge brown sugar right it is good at making things moist and chewy but I wonder if in the case of a brownie really it's the granulated that's doing the heavy lifting in terms of giving you that kind of crispiness so point being what if we refine V1 okay do another pass at that called 1A I know see what I did there this just helps me see side by side where we're at I'm going to go down to 1/3 cup AP we're going to go down to 13 Dutch cocoa and let's stay consistent at one te salt I want to go to 4 oz Bittersweet two eggs I'm actually going to go up in Sugar I'm going to go to 1 and 1/4 cup granulated sugar you want to be careful when you introduce sugar and eggs together because the sugar will start to cook the egg it's one of those things like my culinary instructors were always like you have to stop whisking it will cook it but it's like will it it'll just like it'll kind of singe it and I think um it can cause the egg to separate I'm starting by whisking the eggs and sugar until they're foamy and starting to form ribbons see if we can get a little melty melty a brownie needs to have a crackly top liquefying the sugar to an extent is important but is it important enough to ask people to build the batter on the stove top maybe already for some folks you know putting a bowl over simmering pot of water is like 10 times harder than opening up a box of mix so I just want to be mindful of that then I'm going to incorporate the brown butter and chocolate mixture this is where it gets wild cuz we're also going to go up to 375 baking at 375 I'm hoping gets us a little bit more of a set and kind of crispy Edge while still maintaining a fudgy Center higher temperature higher proportion of granulated sugar better crispiness we'll see neither version one nor version two is feeling nearly close enough to me right now I've got 1 a in the oven see how that's looking before I make any next moves version one this is where I kind of pulled out some stops in terms of dialing up flavors and ingredients very dense but also a little dry version two yeah definitely more of a Terrain it's definite absence of Cracklin texture is better but the chocolate flavor is not as like nuanced you did use unsweetened here so that might be a contributor this I'm calling 1A it's closer to one I did a little blaner of the eggs and sugar that's the word you know I didn't want to say it before it kind of helped that almost Mery situation I wouldn't mind if there was a little bit more height to these adding another egg might help a click more dry ingredient flour cocoa powder can I throw in a curveball have you considered chocolate chips you can you can I part of but part of the reason is like I hate them and I don't want them in a brownie okay but I think it it can help having that like liquid sugar coming riding along with the chocolate pieces it has shown to improve that kind of crackly top oh I was looking before we spoke to kind of build a little bit more on V2 but you've made me see some of the benefits of where we came in with like V1 and I think maybe we can continue to refine off of v1a I would add chips and maybe like a touch of instant espresso I'm not Browning butter I know I don't I I do worry that the brown butter presents a Rubicon that many people will not cross overall the reception to 1A was pretty favor a lot of questions for tomorrow can we get away with doing this in one bowl is 375 really the Right Temp I also want to try taking out the brown butter I think we probably have four or five more rounds tomorrow how are you feeling I feel okay this morning the walls are closing in a little bit just in terms of not having as much time as I would like this is the version I'm working with first up today based on what I learned from version 1A key things to note are no longer using brown what if we try to bring the sugar and eggs to this bowl and like kind of warm them up slightly as we whisk them and see if we can get the sugar to dissolve a little bit that way without making it hot per se is that a good idea or is that a bad idea I don't I don't actually know adding an egg so three eggs total look at what a difference it made to add that third egg like this is so much more fluid of a batter we upped the AP flour and cocoa powder to to help offset that increased liquidity from the egg but also in the interest of creating a little bit more structure to the Brownie and then the X Factor chocolate chips I was entirely against chocolate chips for a while I may still be against chocolate chips let me make that very clear but if they serve a purpose who am I to deny you know the the impact that they could have on this recipe right just because I don't NE necessarily want them in my brownie doesn't mean they shouldn't be there I mean wow what a difference in terms of how much we're filling this thing I'm really liking the height it presents as more of a significant brownie pretty nice separation of this like lovely crackly slightly merang like top with this fudgy lower quadrant this is a brownie you can eat several bites of the chocolate chips aren't bum me out in any way I think they help reinforce that sensation of fudgin one thing that I think is really working here is the balance of flavor we've got a lovely sweet fruity um cocoy intensely chocy balance it like really invites another bite when you taste it here's my taste it is a little bit more chewy which I appreciate the thing that I'm missing is like a little bit more salt mhm and I'd be curious like what does this version taste like with the brown butter honestly you're close 90 to 95% of the development work the heavy lifting is behind us the two bigger criteria that we want to gauge are bringing brown butter back and then also a version with high heat going up to 400 we're running a little bit out of time here so Danielle's going to cook through the brown butter version and I'll do the Bake at 400 high heat I'm wondering if it's going to channel even more heat through the metal pan and get us even more of a crispy Edge contrasted with more of a rich and fudgy interior brown butter the question is is it going to make a really big impact on flavor and could our structure be compromised in any way by driving off all of the water content we're going to treat our previous batch that we tasted as our control group will either of these things prove to be decisive and worth making an argument for I don't know but that's why we're going to do it couldn't have come out a better time I'm need of a little bit of a suar time of day for sure baking at 400 as opposed to 375 the chocolate chips are a real Revelation I got to say the texture is beautiful you know what this one looks the prettiest but it's um actually a little dry I think it's the high heat pull little little too much um moisture so 375 just feels like a much safer temperature the second offshoot of the day nice the difference here is bringing back the brown butter but not making any other changes it's definitely yielded a different texture it's drier veering on crumbly where we started yesterday exactly I mean it's both gratifying but also slightly maddening the same exact amount of butter brown totally compromise the structure of this brownie I just want to refresh yes my recollection of the control this gives me just a bit more boxed brownie but on steroids in a good way mhm the texture is so good it's like if you can see your teeth marks I must say the sugar level is still a little high for me for you interesting I feel like the sugar is part of what's giving usce top it is more balanced than yesterday's but I think it can still go down to a cup I mean would you consider some flaky salt on top or no we're like I feel like it takes you too far out of the box brownie Paradigm okay that's fair it's like you gave me chips I'm happy with the chip I gave you your chips get out of here I'm really happy with the control but I do think there's one more round of testing that we could do just a control for this question of sweetness um one test can be switching to Bittersweet Chocolate but keeping the sugar the same and one could be keeping the bar chocolate as is but just dropping the Sugar by A4 of a cup we are circling my platonic ideal of a brownie but we are close you know we're on approach we got to do like one more spin around in the air before we can bring that sucker down broad Strokes I think this is a great brownie one that I think could appeal to virtually anybody big day oh my goodness my perfect brownie the platonic ideal is somewhere in one of these pans I was definitely apprehensive at the beginning of the process about whether we could really crack this one especially in just two days this is a Moment of Truth there have been many along the way definitely pretty cocoa forward there's a richness here you know there's a richness and intensity of the cocoa flavor that is very nice let's check out the Bittersweet I think the flavor balance is really nice in this Bittersweet I'm missing sugar here I also wonder with less sugar present still have a little bit of crackle but it's just not as pronounced whereas that Bittersweet version you really get the sensation of glossiness that crackly surface how are you feeling I feel good listen like I said it's never actually over but at a certain point somebody just has to yell cut right I don't want to be the only person to decide Hannah went home thank God so we don't have to argue about the sugar anymore everyone can grab a bite Christy I need you in there what did everyone think that's amazing it's good this guy right here calling version six our winner it's mostly written out in our standard recipe language I just need to go in and make a few tweaks and then see what happens on the cross test it's so fun to look back at the evolution I mean look at where we started the density the matte finish lack of any kind of real structure to see the progression you know like kind of all the way through here to end up a little Haller on the plate having that lovely crackly surface lovely structure ample chew fudg honestly it's so gratifying it's a different perspective it's a different point of view on the Brownie and it's one that I hope people will really be into double boiler melt the butter in the chocolate whisking sugar whisking the eggs one by one vanilla dry ingredients flour our cocoa powder our salt and then chocolate chips and then boom right into the oven about half an hour I don't think it's that much harder and driving to the store coming back and making something from a mix we kept the process simple but we made it really really work hard this is my platonic ideal of a brownie it's a heck of a journey really happy without how it came outI spent the last 2 days making all of these brownies to find the perfect one this took 1 and 1/2 lbs of chocolate chips a pound of cocoa powder 5 lb of chocolate $30 worth of vanilla extract nine batches of brownies for a total of 144 brownies I want to show you how I develop my perfect brownie recipe my perfect brownie it's three things I've been giving this a lot of thought probably too much thought a crackly smooth kind of glossy top a texture that is fudgy but you know by fudgy I think we mean chewy really deep really rich flavor so game plan V1 we're going for more Savory I think you just have to start somewhere informed by some of the recipes that I've seen and that I've cooked myself and that I know work Mark bittman's brownies for the New York Times ultimate chewy brownies King Arthur flow Catherine hurns brownies this is on Epicurious via Ruth richel in Gourmet it's a tangled web just want to get my dry ingredients set so I'm using a half cup of flour a teaspoon of salt Dutch processed cocoa powder it has deeper richer chocolate flavor one stick of butter browned if there's an opportunity to introduce a little bit extra flavor brown sugar instead of white sugar a little bit of whole wheat flour in addition to AP or just white flour I go for it Browning butter drives out the water content from the butter and when you toast those milk solids you develop all those wonderful nutty flavors and Aromas it's going to be actively Savory the question is are people going to be willing to do it I want to use both cocoa powder and melted chocolate bar chocolate is adding fat here it's also adding body to these brownies the question is how do you get that mixture to form like just ever so slight of a crumb using too much melted chocolate it's you're going to have like an outrageously chocolate brownie but like at one point is it almost not even a brownie anymore okay so that's 100 G of granulated sugar do we do the light brown or do we really go for it with the dark brown dark brown sugar would just have like a higher proportion of molasses content here and flavor-wise maybe a click past where we want to be maybe we'll go light brown what dissolves sugar water but remember we drove all of the water content out of brown butter and the chocolate doesn't really have any appreciable water content yeah I'm not really noticing that the sugar is melting appreciably here one of the things that I'm trying to go for here is a crackly top it's really the kind of melting of the sugar interacting with the eggs which are kind of forming minimal layer of merang on top of the brownies that's kind of forming and Rising as they bake I hate when the measuring spoons still have the rain just like separate them why do you want them all attached so I'm doing 2 tpoon of vanilla all right definitely noticing a texture change now this is like a very tight cake batter dry ingredients kind of stir them in just so I don't overwork this mixture it's a very thick mixture releases almost semi clean from the bowl definitely with the addition of the eggs I noticed a big difference and I do want to spread this out it is reading a little tight to me but we'll see how it bakes up the proof is certainly in the brownie as they say another assumption I'm making is that like let's start this first attempt at 350 which is pretty standard but knowing that some brownie recipes do occasionally call for baking temperature of as much as 400 which I think is a way of kind of getting like a crispier edge coupled with like a gooier center but let's see one thing a brownie should not be is underbaked I'm not like the neatest Baker that's why like I find it honestly like baking at home not the most relaxing just like anticipating the clean up everybody wants to help it's like the tiniest bit of like moist crumb attached I think we're good there the top feels like pretty nice and set there are some good things happening here in terms of having like a little bit of a crackly top is it good is it bad I don't know a hot brownie by default is almost always delicious so I think we need to throw this in the fridge before we can even talk about it it's only when things set to room temp that you can really see oh is this truly crispy Jammy chewy all of the things I want to see from the side how does that look there's a little bit of structure here and it kind of devolves into this layer of sort of like indeterminate fudge I'm kind of looking at how you have a little bit more of this height and structure around the edge this brownie is too intense it's too chocolatey and just lacking a certain amount of like structure and or even water give me a little bit of like more height a little bit more kind of openness I'm worried about texture and flavor the two things I think are are real deficits here are the decisions we made in terms of the interventions around the butter the light brown sugar did that really make a difference I don't know like are you reading the brown butter against the backdrop of 6 oz of bittersweet chocolate and a half cup of D Dutch processed cocoa powder maybe not V2 inspired to an extent by the Simplicity of Ruth richel and the mark bitman what happens when you incorporate a higher proportion of melted chocolate versus cocoa bittman's got half a cup of AP flour Ruth Rael has a/4 cup of AP flour what if we did a/4 cup of cocoa and 1/4 cup of flour bit's got 3 oz of unsweetened this bar is 4 oz so wouldn't it be nice to just use the 4 oz of unsweetened one stick butter but we're not going to Brown it I'm just melting the chocolate and the butter together this is decidedly simpler than having to Brown the butter in a separate pan 1 and 1/4 cup sugar no brown sugar in this version different proportions of the same ingredients will have different outcomes the number of people who are like oh but like you just like took the same ingredients that so and so used and then just like did different quantities and it was like yeah wow thank you for paying attention all right this is version two didn't have the crackly top which I'm not entirely surprised by I'm honestly surprised that we did get such a pronounced crackly top with V1 it also feels overly dark and overly Savory the texture is maybe a slight Improvement versus V1 but it's still reading pretty brooding pretty dark and kind of heavy would brown butter even if I had used it show up against that level of intensity coming from the chocolate flavor probably not my instinct is to frankly add more flour and add an egg to just kind of keep that chocolatin but just kind of stretch it out over something a little bit lighter and taller and bring a little bit more kind of cakiness kind of back into it what would that do that's what I think is so interesting right it's like it can be a brownie and it can fit the brief check all the boxes and still feel wrong you didn't necessarily create something exceptional it works but is it great not at all what I'm thinking is maybe we work this from both sides we take what we like about V1 and we try to continue to refine it so pull back some of the chocolate pull back some of the cocoa see if maybe just going to all granulated sugar will give us a little bit more of that kind of crispiness around the edge brown sugar right it is good at making things moist and chewy but I wonder if in the case of a brownie really it's the granulated that's doing the heavy lifting in terms of giving you that kind of crispiness so point being what if we refine V1 okay do another pass at that called 1A I know see what I did there this just helps me see side by side where we're at I'm going to go down to 1/3 cup AP we're going to go down to 13 Dutch cocoa and let's stay consistent at one te salt I want to go to 4 oz Bittersweet two eggs I'm actually going to go up in Sugar I'm going to go to 1 and 1/4 cup granulated sugar you want to be careful when you introduce sugar and eggs together because the sugar will start to cook the egg it's one of those things like my culinary instructors were always like you have to stop whisking it will cook it but it's like will it it'll just like it'll kind of singe it and I think um it can cause the egg to separate I'm starting by whisking the eggs and sugar until they're foamy and starting to form ribbons see if we can get a little melty melty a brownie needs to have a crackly top liquefying the sugar to an extent is important but is it important enough to ask people to build the batter on the stove top maybe already for some folks you know putting a bowl over simmering pot of water is like 10 times harder than opening up a box of mix so I just want to be mindful of that then I'm going to incorporate the brown butter and chocolate mixture this is where it gets wild cuz we're also going to go up to 375 baking at 375 I'm hoping gets us a little bit more of a set and kind of crispy Edge while still maintaining a fudgy Center higher temperature higher proportion of granulated sugar better crispiness we'll see neither version one nor version two is feeling nearly close enough to me right now I've got 1 a in the oven see how that's looking before I make any next moves version one this is where I kind of pulled out some stops in terms of dialing up flavors and ingredients very dense but also a little dry version two yeah definitely more of a Terrain it's definite absence of Cracklin texture is better but the chocolate flavor is not as like nuanced you did use unsweetened here so that might be a contributor this I'm calling 1A it's closer to one I did a little blaner of the eggs and sugar that's the word you know I didn't want to say it before it kind of helped that almost Mery situation I wouldn't mind if there was a little bit more height to these adding another egg might help a click more dry ingredient flour cocoa powder can I throw in a curveball have you considered chocolate chips you can you can I part of but part of the reason is like I hate them and I don't want them in a brownie okay but I think it it can help having that like liquid sugar coming riding along with the chocolate pieces it has shown to improve that kind of crackly top oh I was looking before we spoke to kind of build a little bit more on V2 but you've made me see some of the benefits of where we came in with like V1 and I think maybe we can continue to refine off of v1a I would add chips and maybe like a touch of instant espresso I'm not Browning butter I know I don't I I do worry that the brown butter presents a Rubicon that many people will not cross overall the reception to 1A was pretty favor a lot of questions for tomorrow can we get away with doing this in one bowl is 375 really the Right Temp I also want to try taking out the brown butter I think we probably have four or five more rounds tomorrow how are you feeling I feel okay this morning the walls are closing in a little bit just in terms of not having as much time as I would like this is the version I'm working with first up today based on what I learned from version 1A key things to note are no longer using brown what if we try to bring the sugar and eggs to this bowl and like kind of warm them up slightly as we whisk them and see if we can get the sugar to dissolve a little bit that way without making it hot per se is that a good idea or is that a bad idea I don't I don't actually know adding an egg so three eggs total look at what a difference it made to add that third egg like this is so much more fluid of a batter we upped the AP flour and cocoa powder to to help offset that increased liquidity from the egg but also in the interest of creating a little bit more structure to the Brownie and then the X Factor chocolate chips I was entirely against chocolate chips for a while I may still be against chocolate chips let me make that very clear but if they serve a purpose who am I to deny you know the the impact that they could have on this recipe right just because I don't NE necessarily want them in my brownie doesn't mean they shouldn't be there I mean wow what a difference in terms of how much we're filling this thing I'm really liking the height it presents as more of a significant brownie pretty nice separation of this like lovely crackly slightly merang like top with this fudgy lower quadrant this is a brownie you can eat several bites of the chocolate chips aren't bum me out in any way I think they help reinforce that sensation of fudgin one thing that I think is really working here is the balance of flavor we've got a lovely sweet fruity um cocoy intensely chocy balance it like really invites another bite when you taste it here's my taste it is a little bit more chewy which I appreciate the thing that I'm missing is like a little bit more salt mhm and I'd be curious like what does this version taste like with the brown butter honestly you're close 90 to 95% of the development work the heavy lifting is behind us the two bigger criteria that we want to gauge are bringing brown butter back and then also a version with high heat going up to 400 we're running a little bit out of time here so Danielle's going to cook through the brown butter version and I'll do the Bake at 400 high heat I'm wondering if it's going to channel even more heat through the metal pan and get us even more of a crispy Edge contrasted with more of a rich and fudgy interior brown butter the question is is it going to make a really big impact on flavor and could our structure be compromised in any way by driving off all of the water content we're going to treat our previous batch that we tasted as our control group will either of these things prove to be decisive and worth making an argument for I don't know but that's why we're going to do it couldn't have come out a better time I'm need of a little bit of a suar time of day for sure baking at 400 as opposed to 375 the chocolate chips are a real Revelation I got to say the texture is beautiful you know what this one looks the prettiest but it's um actually a little dry I think it's the high heat pull little little too much um moisture so 375 just feels like a much safer temperature the second offshoot of the day nice the difference here is bringing back the brown butter but not making any other changes it's definitely yielded a different texture it's drier veering on crumbly where we started yesterday exactly I mean it's both gratifying but also slightly maddening the same exact amount of butter brown totally compromise the structure of this brownie I just want to refresh yes my recollection of the control this gives me just a bit more boxed brownie but on steroids in a good way mhm the texture is so good it's like if you can see your teeth marks I must say the sugar level is still a little high for me for you interesting I feel like the sugar is part of what's giving usce top it is more balanced than yesterday's but I think it can still go down to a cup I mean would you consider some flaky salt on top or no we're like I feel like it takes you too far out of the box brownie Paradigm okay that's fair it's like you gave me chips I'm happy with the chip I gave you your chips get out of here I'm really happy with the control but I do think there's one more round of testing that we could do just a control for this question of sweetness um one test can be switching to Bittersweet Chocolate but keeping the sugar the same and one could be keeping the bar chocolate as is but just dropping the Sugar by A4 of a cup we are circling my platonic ideal of a brownie but we are close you know we're on approach we got to do like one more spin around in the air before we can bring that sucker down broad Strokes I think this is a great brownie one that I think could appeal to virtually anybody big day oh my goodness my perfect brownie the platonic ideal is somewhere in one of these pans I was definitely apprehensive at the beginning of the process about whether we could really crack this one especially in just two days this is a Moment of Truth there have been many along the way definitely pretty cocoa forward there's a richness here you know there's a richness and intensity of the cocoa flavor that is very nice let's check out the Bittersweet I think the flavor balance is really nice in this Bittersweet I'm missing sugar here I also wonder with less sugar present still have a little bit of crackle but it's just not as pronounced whereas that Bittersweet version you really get the sensation of glossiness that crackly surface how are you feeling I feel good listen like I said it's never actually over but at a certain point somebody just has to yell cut right I don't want to be the only person to decide Hannah went home thank God so we don't have to argue about the sugar anymore everyone can grab a bite Christy I need you in there what did everyone think that's amazing it's good this guy right here calling version six our winner it's mostly written out in our standard recipe language I just need to go in and make a few tweaks and then see what happens on the cross test it's so fun to look back at the evolution I mean look at where we started the density the matte finish lack of any kind of real structure to see the progression you know like kind of all the way through here to end up a little Haller on the plate having that lovely crackly surface lovely structure ample chew fudg honestly it's so gratifying it's a different perspective it's a different point of view on the Brownie and it's one that I hope people will really be into double boiler melt the butter in the chocolate whisking sugar whisking the eggs one by one vanilla dry ingredients flour our cocoa powder our salt and then chocolate chips and then boom right into the oven about half an hour I don't think it's that much harder and driving to the store coming back and making something from a mix we kept the process simple but we made it really really work hard this is my platonic ideal of a brownie it's a heck of a journey really happy without how it came out\n"