Dennis Weaver
The Ultimate Brownies
The setting is years ago. The project was to build the best brownie recipe possible. We were using popular brownie recipes as a resource: How much cocoa were they putting in their brownies?
We knew we had an edge: we had better cocoa — better cocoa than they could buy in the store, better cocoa than their readers had in their pantries.
Our cocoa cost more because we were cutting out the middleman, buying in bulk, and operating as a specialty shop. We felt we could make the numbers work.
We had a starting recipe that we developed from our cookbooks, a good recipe with plenty of cocoa.
We switched to our better cocoa and got started. At the time, we were teaching baking classes in our test kitchen in the evenings. They were our test subjects. We started with our first trial. We handed out brownies from our first trial.
"Who thinks this is a good brownie?" Every hand went up. We gave them trial two — more cocoa.
"Who thinks this is a good brownie? Who thinks it has too much chocolate?"
No one thought it had too much chocolate. It wasn't until trial five that a few hands went up.
We had the brownies made, so we continued the trials. Some of those people could handle a lot of chocolate, especially the guys.
We backed off the chocolate and concluded our recipe.
Two things we learned:
- Better cocoa makes a dramatic difference. Most grocery store cocoa is 8 to 10% cocoa butter. Our Ramstadt Breda Rich Dark Cocoa is 22 to 24% — nearly three times the cocoa butter. You can taste it in the first bite. If you're baking with grocery store cocoa, switching is the single biggest improvement you can make.
- Most home recipes don't use enough cocoa. Our test kitchen trials showed that people consistently preferred more chocolate than standard recipes call for. If your brownies taste flat, the answer is usually more cocoa — and better cocoa.
The Ultimate Brownie Recipe
That recipe became the formula for Uncle Bob's brownies. Uncle Bob was my kid brother.
Uncle Bob's Brownies are our bestselling brownies. They're not fancy, but they're made with that same very good cocoa — better chocolate and more chocolate. Uncle Bob's Brownies have been very successful.
This recipe is basically the original recipe. I don't think we have changed a thing in 15 years.
We recommend Ramstadt Breda Rich Dark Cocoa or Belcolade Dark Cocoa.
Ingredients:
1 cup Belcolade Dark Cocoa or equal
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 sticks (1 cup) butter, melted
2 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups walnut pieces (optional)
Set the baking temperature to 350 degrees. You will need a 9 x 13-inch dark baking pan, two mixing bowls—one of them medium or large, and a whisk. (A dark pan will bake more quickly than a silver pan.) The larger bowl should be microwave-safe, so you don't have to wash it by hand.
- Grease the dark pan with a little shortening and line it with parchment paper. The shortening will hold the paper in place. Set aside.
- In the smaller of the two bowls, whisk the cocoa and flour together to break up any clumps and disperse the cocoa. Set aside.
- In the larger of the two bowls, melt the butter in the microwave. Add the sugar and salt, then stir. Add the eggs and the vanilla and stir until mixed.
- Add the cocoa-flour mixture to the liquid mixture. Stir until combined. Add the chopped nuts and stir.
- Scrape the batter into the prepared pan with a spatula, then spread it evenly. Place the pan in the oven. After 20 minutes, check the brownies with your probe-type thermometer. The brownies should be approaching 180 degrees. Continue baking until they reach 180 degrees.
- Place the pan on a wire rack and cool for 5 minutes, then, grasping the edge of the parchment paper, tip the pan over a wire rack and pull the cake onto it. Let cool for at least another 5 minutes, then transfer the cake to a cutting board for slicing.
Baker's Notes:
The time stated in the directions should work, but using a thermometer is more precise and more reliable.
We wanted gooey, chewy brownies baked just long enough, to 180 degrees, not overbaked. We cut our brownies with a large pizza wheel, not a knife. We wipe the blade with a damp cloth after each cut, leaving the blade slightly damp for the next cut. The damp blade makes cleaner cuts.
And if you want to skip the from-scratch work — Uncle Bob's already has the right cocoa, in the right amount, dialed in from 15 years of testing. See Uncle Bob's Extra Moist and Fudgy Brownie Mix →
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