Dark Chocolate Brownies - Recipe File (2024)

63 comments on Dark Chocolate Brownies:(Post a comment)

Love the site. Definitely one of my favs on my RSS reader.

I'm a music student on a budget (gadzooks!) and have been searching for some time for a brownie recipe that substitutes cocoa for (often expensive) chocolate. Has anyone found a recipe that's satisfactory? Obviously the same taste cannot be had, but surely someone must have figured out some decent ratios...

Cheers. Eat well.

A great idea for a dinner party / party is to make brownie pops with a chocolate fondue.

Overcook the brownies just slightly so that they're firmer. Then use a cookie cutter to create small 1 to 1.5-inch round brownie bites, place them on long candy sticks, and serve them with a chocolate fondue (melt 12oz chocolate with 1/2cup heavy cream).

Aaron,

You could substitute cocoa powder for the chocolate required in your brownie recipes using this formula that I found at http://www.cookies-in-motion.com

For every ounce of unsweetened chocolate, use 3 tablespoons of cocoa and 1 tablespoon of either vegetable shortening or butter.

I tried it and could not detect any difference in quality.

The reason being that chocolate is basically cocoa powder and cocoa butter which is a fat. So if you replace it with its separate components, there shouldn't be any significant difference in taste and flavor, hopefully.

Happy Baking,
http://www.cookies-in-motion.com

Yes, that's a great tip. To make this even easier, you can line baking pan with a sheet of parchment paper that is long enough to overhang the sides. After baking and cooling, pull up on the ends and lift the brownie out and onto a cutting board. Use a pizza cutter and section away!

I bought Baker's Unsweetened Chocolate squares. It didn't say 70% but there was no sugar. There were 8 blocks in the box. I don't like stuff left over so I was going to use all eight but I only used seven.

I am pre-diabetic on a hypoglycemic diet so I substituted Splenda for sugar and used whole wheat flour 50% and regular flour 50%. I added 1 1/2 cups pecans and 1 tsp of cayenne pepper.

My mixture looked dryer than yours, more like cookie dough. I used a spoon to flatten it.

They turned out a little dry and crumbly but good. I thought the raw mixture tasted more chocolatley than the cooked brownies. Next time I'll use 8 squares.

shortly after hepburn's death, a letter to the nyt recounted this recipe given by hepburn to the writer's father:

Melt 1 stick unsalted butter,
add 1/2 cup cocoa and stir until smooth.
Remove from heat and allow to cool for a few minutes.
Add 2 eggs, one at a time.
Add 1 cup sugar, 1/4 cup flour, 1 teaspoon vanilla and pinch of salt.
Add 1 cup nuts of choice.

Pour into into greased 8x8 pan and bake 40 min at 325 degrees.
Do not overbake.

i tried the original brownies recipe and it's good, however, a bit too soft and cakey for my taste(but my aunts loved it!). i prefer brownies a bit fudgy and dense. i'm planning to try it again with 2 eggs instead of 3. and maybe another batch made with 3/4 cup flour instead of 1. let's see which one turns out better.

-kayenne

I just finished baking a non dairy version of this recipe. I used Spectrum Organic all vegetable shortening (non-hydrogenated) in place of the butter. I used Sucanat evaporated cane sugar in place of white sugar, and whole wheat pastry flour in place of white.

They came out pretty well. They needed less baking time. I baked 32 min at it was about 4 minutes too long.

I think using 2 eggs will result in a more chewy texture that I prefer (as someone already mentioned)

Over all I appreciate finding this recipe! Thanks Very much :)

Tracy

Hello,

Thank you for posting this recipe. It's not easy to make American brownie recipes when you live in Europe, where there's no unsweetened chocolate. But we do have lots of high cocoa-content semisweet chocolate, so this recipe is perfect for us.

They came out very well. I only baked them 25 min., but that seemed enough. Also after melting the chocolate and butter, I mixed in the rest of the ingredients without keeping the bowl over hot water (I was being helped by 3-year old girls, so I didn't want to take any risks!).

Since the said 3-year olds and I had a difference of opinions regarding the desirability of adding nuts, I made half with nuts, half without: I spread a thin layer of the batter all over the pan, then sprinkled chopped pecans on half of it, and covered the whole surface with the rest of the batter, being careful not to mix nuts into the children's section. This worked well.

They came out fudgy and a bit chewy yet crunchy near the edges. I was wondering why the sugar isn't beaten with the eggs: wouldn't that make for a shinier crust? Also the interesting thing is the brownies weren't too sweet the day I made them, but by the second day they tasted really quite sweet. But still delicious, the best I've made so far, thank you! (The three-year olds agree).

Astrid
www.lacerise.blogspot.com

Thank you very much. I'm new to the world of baking but I made the Dark Choc Brownies according to the instructions over the weekend. It taste great !

However, I noticed that half-way during the baking, the top surface of the brownies started to crack. I was using dark colored baking tray and lined it with aluminium foil. Is this normal ? What setting should I adjust to prevent the surface from cracking ?

This is in relation to the referral website (www.foodnetwork.com) above

1 cup is 250ml but....
How much is one cup of onions? potatoes? broccoli?
Not 250grams of it right?

How do I know how much of every one cup measurement do I put into my cooking?

Btw, AWESOME site! I've experimented with a few dishes that turn out BEAUTIFULLY. Keep up the fantastic work!

In the U.S., most recipes are written with only volumetric quantities for ingredients. This is probably because most families in the U.S. don't have scales in their kitchen. It is also a real pain for someone running a website like Cooking For Engineers where volumetric measurements are pretty much useless for over half my readership. To handle volume to mass conversion, I find myself utilizing two tools: my digital scales and the USDA Nutrient Standards.

Some coversions I use so often that I have memorized: 1 cup sugar = 200 g, 1 cup packed brown sugar = 220g, 1 cup sifted flour = 125 g (unsifted can weigh up to 160 g and who knows what some recipe books assume you use - Cooking For Engineers always presents recipes with sifted flour measurements).

I made these the other night....they were some of the best brownies we have ever had....and I have got some fine brownie recipes. I would caution everyone to not bake these too much. Michael says 35 minutes....I baked mine for maybe 26 minutes. You never want to overbake brownies....the reason they are so good is that they are slightly underdone. The edges had a nice crispy crunch and the inner pieces were gooey and very nicely chocolatey. I am going to elevate this recipe to the top of the brownie list, it was that good.

One proviso, I always use Mexican vanilla....if you have access to this, please try it too....the difference it makes in any baked good is amazing.

Abo Gato

Try this: crumble up 10 Rich Tea digestive biscuits and put into the batter after adding everything else, and mix thoroughly before pouring into the pan.

Deeeelicious.

Thank you very much for the recipe.

Every time I have a dinner with other people in which each one has to bring something, I cook the brownie and I always get the best appraisals.

This recipe is quite close to the brownie recipe I use, but instead of using the double boiler I just stick the butter and chocolate in the microwave. It's a lot easier that way, just takes a minute or two to have the chocolate and butter mixture ready.

All of the ingredients can be tweaked by 25% or so in either direction to get the particular sort of brownies you like.

Ok, I take that back, now that I look there are many recipes for brownies without any leavener, I'll try it as it is.

Note that a double boiler is very 20th century :) A microwave is the far superior modern way to prepare melted chocolate for this kind of thing.

I've made many chocolate creme brulee's that way, it's a snap.
Just toss the butter and chocolate broken up into a container, hit it with 10 second increments of hi power in the microwave repeatedly until it starts to look like a gooey mess but not so far as to melt it completely, then stir it to complete the melting.

I've been experimenting with brownie recipes and I think this could take at least 50g more chocolate - I love chocolate!

I also experimented with chocolate and lime flavoured brownies. The lime flavour is quite interesting in a brownie, but on reflection I think brownies should be chocolate through and through.

Thanks for the gorgeously illustrated recipe Michael, you've made me want to go make more brownies :)

I've been wanting a recipe like this for a long, long time. It's been close to 30 years since I've had brownies like this.

These are alot like the brownies I made as a kid, but I no longer have that recipe. I love melting the chocolate, and adding the flour, plus LICKING THE SPOON!

Thanks again for your wonderful recipes!

My friends did not believe that I was able to bake that good

This is an easy to do, delicious desert. Thank you! :)

I'm a novice in cooking.Also i'm nt very fond of cooking.
Add 2 tht i'm an engineer nd due 2 my studies nevr gt d time 2 entr d Kitchen.
Bt my kid sis happens 2 b my opposite. She tym nd again prods me 2 cook with and for her.

So here i was all set 2 make anothr often repeated disaster of my life -- Brownie... until i happen to come across this site.

This recipe is excellent and it does turn out to be a success.I have made it 3 times in the past 3 weeks.

Also i loved the easy 2 understand format of this site. A must-see site for all the analytical minds!;)

I lost my recipe :( for American Brownies and was desperate to get a good one. Never expected this website to come up in the google search. I had to make them last night for my mother-in-law who was flying back home and was afraid of experimenting. Despite apprehensions, the brownies turned out to be fantastic :) . Much better than the recipe I had.

Just a question, how do we ensure that the bottom does not get stuck. I did butter the pan and floured it but was unable to overturn the pan and get the brownie complete into another plate.

If using more butter with a light coating of flour doesn't solve the problem, your only recourse (without trying a different pan) is to have a sacrificial piece that you scoop out first and then you should be able to perfectly lift all the other pieces out of the pan.

Or i suggest buttering the pan then layering a layer of baking paper. It always works for me.

Months late on a reply, but I just read a different recipe that said this happened when they used a mixer. Mixing by hand yielded the normal brownie tops. Hope that helps.

thanks so much for sharing your recipe with everybody!!

mine are currently in the oven and smell great. I live in the UK and used green and blacks cocoa 75% dark chocolate. ( I noticed that one of the posters mentioned it was hard to get the right chocolate here) Its also fair trade which is obviously a bonus.

Does the 160°C stated apply to fan assisted ovens too? or is that for normal ovens?? If the later , this may explain why some people needed to cook for less time and why others experienced the crack....

thanks again xx

All temperatures are for ovens without fans.

These were great brownies! I had to bake them a little extra but they were gobbled down by a troop of hungry boys!

I added the coffee to one of two batches and could taste the difference. It really does intensify the chocolate flavour.

Thanks a stack!
:)

And the result was ... excellent. I made these for my son's birthday. I only substituted dark-brown sugar and only added 1 cup of it, instead of the 1.5. They were a hit with my sons, their friends and my husband. I am not a big fan of chocolate in general and brownies in particular, but even I thought they were pretty smooth and tasty.

Thanks for the presentation of your recipes. Very analytical indeed.

Before I discovered I have a sensitivity to gluten I made these brownies and they were the best brownies I'd ever had! When I found out I needed to cut out all purpose flour I was unable to say good bye to these brownies. I have replaced the flour with 100% almond flour and I have to say they are now EVEN BETTER!!

Thank you!

-K

As the recipe contains water in some form or another, the internal temperature of the brownie is limited to the boiling point of water. Of course, the skin dries out, and can see excursions higher than the boiling point. If one cooks the brownie in a bain marie, will the lower temperature, better heat transfer and higher humidity reduce this hard skin effect?

Someone mentioned chipotle in a brownie, which is of course a smoked jalapeno. Beyond nuts or chilis, another thing which goes well into chocolate is bacon. I'm unsure about black pepper in chocolate, but a nice smoked bacon would work. So would a number of the sausages (probably avoiding the ones with black pepper). Citrus zest will go into chocolate nicely. It would be interesting to try a chiffinade (sp?) of peppermint or spearmint leaves. Especially if the bain marie idea works.

But, a nice website. Thanks for sharing.

I made this recipe about a year ago but added some cinnamon, cayenne and bacon for spicy bacon brownies that were such a hit I could not say "cooking for engineers" fast enough for all the people who wanted my recipe.

I am trying to remember exactly what I did so I can make them again to pay back a friend who is doing me a favor. I think I doubled the recipe then added about a tablespoon of each spice, cooked up maybe six pieces of bacon very crispy and crumbled it in and substituted about a third of the butter with bacon grease.

(For those of you who wanted some idea of how to proportion the spicy and bacony ingredients.) I'll check back after I make the new batch and let you know what I end up doing this time and how they turn out.

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