Chocolate Buttermilk-Frosted Brownies Recipe on Food52 (2024)

FAQs

Did I put too much butter in my brownies? ›

How can you tell if you've used too much? Too much butter in your baked goods would give them different texture (flat, greasy..).

Add a teaspoon of instant coffee or espresso powder. Throw in a handful of nuts—pecans, walnuts, macadamia, whatever you have on hand. Scoop in a palmful of dried or frozen fruit. Add an extra splash of the top-shelf vanilla extract, or a dab of vanilla paste, or a dash of vanilla powder, to the batter.

Leave to cool in the tin, then slice into 24 squares. Mary's Tips: Can be made up to 2 days ahead. Freezes well cooked.

Texture and Function

In brownies, both butter and oil will offer a moist, tender texture, but only butter will give the dish the aeration needed for rising brownies well. If you use a cake brownie, butter is a better option because it helps rise the batter. For denser, fudge type brownies, oil is permissable.

Fudgy brownies have a higher fat-to-flour ratio than cakey ones. So add more fat—in this case, butter and chocolate. A cakey batch has more flour and relies on baking powder for leavening. The amount of sugar and eggs does not change whether you're going fudgy or cakey.

the butter brownies actually had a fudgier texture. they were softer, and they really just melted in your mouth. they also had that shiny crust and just better flavor, whereas the oil brownies were actually chewier.

If you want to get a little more creative with your brownie mix hacks, add an extra egg to the batter. The extra protein will help thicken up the batter and make it fluffier, creating a more decadent, fudgy texture. You can also add the yolk by itself in addition to the 2 eggs a box brownie mix typically calls for.

Here's what you need to make box brownies taste homemade: Butter – Boxed brownie mix typically calls for vegetable oil. Using butter is the secret to brownies that taste like they're baked from scratch (use unsalted butter to control the salt level). Espresso powder – Intensifies the chocolate flavor.

Metal pans, specifically aluminum, absorb and transfer heat more consistently than glass, making them perfect for delicious, evenly-cooked, moist brownies every time. Metal pans are also excellent for other baked goods, like quick breads, cakes, cookies, and biscuits.

*All purpose flour can be used instead of bread flour, but for the chewiest brownie, bread flour is a must! The higher protein bread flour allows for a chewy texture in baked goods. Go enjoy your brownies!

How do you store frosted brownies? ›

Brownies can be kept at room temperature for up to five days for most brownie types. A cheesecake swirl or frosting or a ganache frosting should not be kept at room temperature. Store brownies in the fridge if they contain add-ins that are normally refrigerated.

Most recipes call for baking brownies at 350°. If a fudgy inside and crackly top is your goal, stick with that temperature. Brownies baked at 325° will take longer to bake and will become chewier in texture.

If you're reading this, you've probably baked a dozen — or 900 — batches of brownies. But before you roll up your sleeves to commence on your next round of fudgy treats, here's a genius tip: Line your pan with parchment paper.

Home bakers, too, increasingly are foregoing the butter and baking cakes, tortes, brownies and more with olive oil. Swapping olive oil for butter cuts saturated fat. Plus, good olive oil adds a wonderful, nuanced flavor to baked goods and keeps them moist.

But one unexpected error bakers can make is adding too much of a good thing, butter. Although butter generally makes it all better, bakers who go overboard with it are dooming their cookies to a greasy and crumbly texture.

If the brownies still look wet or aren't pulling away, they aren't done. Even fudgy brownies will pull from the edges once they've finished baking. You'll see that the edges look dry while the middle still looks soft or slightly wet. Chewy and cakey brownies will have dry edges with firmer-looking centers.

So the fat seeping out is actually cocoa butter rather than regular butter. The remaining cocoa solids then start to cling together which will then give a harder texture to the brownies. Melt the chocolate and butter together over a very low heat, stirring regularly.

Add semisweet chocolate chips

We made several varieties of brownies in my shop and I noticed that the batches that had extra chocolate chips added to the batter always came out shiny! That's when I realized that the extra step of adding chocolate chips to the brownie batter helps the brownies get a crackly top.