Cool scientific experiment! For brownies I prefer using cocoa and deepening the chocolate taste with a bit of coffee. I use Hershey's or whatever brand is available. Same for chocolate cake too.
(My husband thinks that I'm a mean baker - I scrape down the mixer and bowl to get everything in the pan)
Ree, you absolutely make my day! i enjoy your blogs, and love your recipes; i will have to send you my "best cake brownies" recipe...they have an entire can of 16 oz hershey's chocolate syrup in them....mmmmm.
one of the things i love most about you...your love for that marlboro man and your kiddos...so refreshing!
I love, love, love Guittard chocolate for baking, especially their semi-sweet. If ya wanna get all fancy order their semi sweet, milk and bittersweet and experiment with mixing them. Sooo good! It is slightly less expensive than SB ($12 per lb) and the flavor in my opinion is superior.
I use ground unsweetened cocoa, usually Droste if I have it, or Hershey's in a pinch. Then add extra oil to make up for the dry cocoa. Sometimes I use walnut oil, or toasted walnut grapeseed oil. That gives the brownies an extra nutty flavor. Beating the butter and sugar well helps give the glossy, cracked top that some people like.
Slightly underbaking keeps brownies chewy. Bake till the sides slightly pull away from the pan and the center is still a bit soft. Not really soft. You don't want uncooked batter. Ick.
For pure chocolate flavor, I like Valrhona chocolate. But my preferred baking chocolate is Scharffen Berger, because of it's amazing chocolate taste and fruitiness. I'm a little biased because I'm from San Francisco and Scharffen Berger is in Berkeley.
Every 6 months, I buy a 2.2 kg box of Scharffen Berger bittersweet chocolate. It's a little cheaper buying in bulk and the chocolate is in approx. 1 oz pieces. I highly recommend taking their chocolate factory tour, if you are in the Bay Area.
I have to go make brownies now!
Ree, your readers will follow you anywhere! An excellent write up on your experiment and made even better by your bizarre middle child humor.
Thanks for letting us know when you add your insight on other sites!
Mmmm! I love brownies.
But I have to point out that the fancy baking chocolate you used is dark chocolate and well, being a fan of dark chocolate no other kind of chocolate stands a chance against the dark. And I always use dark in my baking.
I think I'll go home and bake something!
Good to see you here Ree.
Cool. I've now determined that you can write about any topic in an entertaining way. I think someone could ask you to write on a labor and delivery blog about the joys of the episiotomy and you would probably have us rolling in our desk chairs with laughter. And now that I said the "e" word on a food blog, I think I may have just sealed my fate -- I will probably soon be banned.
I have no doubt the super good baker's chocolate would be better... but sheesh. How much money do I have to spend on a sinful (no matter how cheap it is) treat that will soon make its way through my digestive system and land directly on my tush? I'm thinking I probably wouldn't want to make a regular practice of it at all for the sake of my tush... but especially not if I'm going to have to sell my cows in order to do it.
Now if I'm going out to eat, that's another thing... or if I'm receiving it as a gift from the neighbor or if I am being involved in a highly publicized taste test... well, I'd prefer the higher quality any day! Okay... and I guess if I was having someone super dooper special over for dinner... I might go for the gold (and hock all of mine) and get the expensive stuff.
Thanks for the read Ree. You know you are someone's dedicated fan when you join a new website just to make a silly rambling comment...
:^D
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