The Brownie Quest: Attempts 1 and 2

Hello, I am a professional dumbass.

Why? Well, I wanted to make two different recipes of vegan brownies in one day. But obviously, two whole pans of brownies are too much, so I halved the recipes in my head.

And then I forgot halfway through.

So basically, these brownies were sorta halved. They’ve both got too much egg replacement and sugar in them. I tried to fix them, but there’s only so much you can do when you have your batter already made, and like I said, you really don’t want two whole trays of brownies.

In any case, they both ended up being pretty tasty, and they gave me a good starting point to know where I should improve.

The Original Recipes

Going into this, I thought back to what my “perfect brownie” was.

I figured that because my childhood dream brownie (like a Barbie dream house, but tastier) was from a Ghirardelli box mix, their recipes should get me somewhere in the vicinity of what I wanted.

To my delight, the Ghirardelli website had a number of (non-vegan) brownie recipes to give me a good start. I chose the “Fudgy Chocolate Brownies” and the “Classic Chocolate Brownies,” as they seemed like similar recipes with a few key differences (namely, the second recipe added in butter and baking powder, plus brown sugar instead of regular sugar).

Of course, I added chocolate chips and nuts to them, since that’s a requirement of mine. I also veganized them (obviously).

But let’s see how they stacked up.

Recipe 1

Recipe 1 was based off of the “Fudgy Chocolate Brownies” recipe.

I was pleasantly surprised at how simple the recipe was, just six ingredients (eight, when I added the chocolate chips). I made another recipe earlier this month that had twelve ingredients, so it was nice to make something a lot simpler.

My test subjects (by that, I mean my parents) liked Recipe 1 better. They thought it was closer to the “perfect” brownie. I agree; it was a denser, fudgier texture, especially after the brownies had been sitting around for a few days.

Surprisingly, despite the fact it had twice as much sugar as it was supposed to, I didn’t find it too sweet. I would be interested in seeing what effect sugar has on the texture of brownies, so this is something to play around with in the future.

Why wasn’t it perfect?

One issue I had with it was that it seemed a bit oily, especially on the bottom. I did grease the tin with coconut oil (as I do with all of my baked goods), but I don’t think I overdid it.

It also didn’t have a flaky top. Boo. 

Rating of Brownie Recipe 1: 8.5/10

Recipe 2

Recipe 2 was based off of the “Classic Chocolate Brownies” recipe. This had a few more ingredients, like baking powder and vanilla, so I figured it would turn out more cakey.

Recipe 2 was still good! As a person who prefers the corner piece, I actually preferred the crust on this one better – Recipe 1 didn’t have much of a crunchy crust. 

This recipe was sweeter, although again, this was my fault. You could also detect the sugar particles as you were eating the brownies. This recipe was made with brown sugar rather than white sugar, so maybe working to dissolve the sugar more would solve this issue. 

As mentioned before, Recipe 1 was better over time.

I didn’t notice all that much of a difference between the two on the first day, but Recipe 2 felt drier and slightly cakier as the days went on. I think an important part of baked goods, especially when you have a small family like mine, is how well they save on your counter.

Rating of Brownie Recipe 2: 7/10

So what am I going to try next time?

1. Actually read the frickin’ recipe correctly.
2. Research how to make the top of brownies flaky.
3. Try recipe 1 as it was originally written to see what the original sugar content was like

If you are interested in trying my experiments for yourself, I have included the recipes (complete with my own errors) within the text above. I have, however, re-sized them to be full recipes, so you don’t have to make them in tiny tins like I did!

Stay tuned for more Brownie Quest adventures.