The science behind chocolate brownies

I have to admit that including brownies in ‘the science behind’ series may be a bit of a stretch since there really isn’t all that much science that goes into making brownies. Nevertheless, everyone needs a perfect brownie recipe, and I thought I’d share some of the insights I’ve gained into brownie-making with you all.
Any brownie is basically a gooey mixture of butter, chocolate and sugar with some egg, flour and maybe one or two other ingredients thrown in. As with cookies, different people seem to prefer different types of brownies. There’s the cakey brownie, which is rather like cake (yes, you guessed it). These contain a fair amount of flour, some baking powder, and they also require creamed butter to make them fluffy and cake like. Chewy brownies involve some extra eggs and chocolate to make them, well, chewy.

And then there’s my favourite: fudgey brownies. These are basically just chocolate sludge (no baking powder, no creamed butter) with some added flour. Delicious! So let’s make some fudgey brownies (download printable version).
Ingredients:
240g dark chocolate (I used Nestlé Albany but Cadbury’s also works well)
175g butter, cut into small squares
1½ cups white sugar
½ cup light brown sugar (brown sugar makes the brownies extra moist)
3 eggs, at room temperature
1¼ cups cake flour
2 tbsp cocoa powder
A pinch of salt, if you use unsalted butter (to bring out the flavour)

You will also need a 23 x 23cm cake pan, and some baking paper (not wax paper though).

Method:
1. Pre-heat your oven to 180°C.
2. Line your cake pan with baking paper and make sure the paper is well greased with butter or non-stick spray.
3. In a heavy bottomed sauce pan, melt the chocolate and the butter together on low heat, stirring constantly.
4. Remove the mixture from the heat, and stir in the sugars. Let it cool to room temperature.
5. Now add the eggs, and stir to combine. (Don’t over-beat though, since this will cause your brownies to have air trapped in them and become cakey).
6. Add the flour, salt and cocoa powder, and mix them into the batter.
7. Pour the batter into the pan, and bake for 40 minutes.
8. Let the brownies cool in the pan, then lift them out with the baking paper.
9. Now you can cut them into squares.

And that’s pretty much all there is to it. Now you can experiment – if you want cakey brownies you can add more flour and baking powder, or for chewy brownies add some more chocolate and an extra egg or two.

For further experimentation, you can try adding any one of the following: 1tsp coffee powder/1 cup nuts/1 cup white chocolate pieces.

Enjoy your freshly baked brownies!