your notes:
chewy brownies
Bake a batch of these treats to score some real brownie points with your family!
hey curious cook—
Have you heard about our Young Chefs’ Club? Members get a themed (and kid-tested) box delivered each month!
Prepare Ingredients
Gather Baking Equipment
- Aluminum foil
- 8-inch square metal baking pan
- Ruler
- Large zipper-lock plastic bag
- Rolling pin
- Large bowl
- Liquid measuring cup
- Oven mitts
- Whisk
- Rubber spatula
- Toothpick
- Cooling rack
- Cutting board
- Chef’s knife
Adjust oven rack to lowest position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Make aluminum foil sling for 8-inch square metal baking pan (click here to learn how to make a foil sling). Spray foil with vegetable oil spray.
Place chocolate in large zipper-lock plastic bag and seal, removing as much air as possible from bag. Use rolling pin to gently pound chocolate into small pieces.
Even though this picture shows peanuts, the technique is the same!
Heat water in liquid measuring cup in microwave until hot, 1 to 1½ minutes. Use oven mitts to remove measuring cup from microwave. Pour hot water over cocoa mixture and carefully whisk until chocolate is melted and smooth.
Whisk in oil and melted butter (mixture will look lumpy and separated). Whisk in sugar, egg and egg yolk, and vanilla until smooth. Add flour, chocolate chips, and salt and use rubber spatula to stir until combined and no dry flour is visible.
Place baking pan in oven. Bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out with few moist crumbs attached, 25 to 28 minutes.
Food for Thought
What Makes a Brownie Chewy?
We love the chewy texture of brownies that come from a boxed mix, and we wanted to re-create it—without the boxed mix. The solution turned out to need just a little bit of math. The secret to a boxed-mix brownie’s chewy texture boils down to one thing: fat—specifically, the ratio of saturated fat (butter) to unsaturated fat (vegetable oil). By using roughly one-third as much butter as vegetable oil, we got the exact chewy texture we wanted. No boxed mix needed!
