Thinking Through Recipes
Let’s say you meet a strange brownie recipe in the wild – what should you expect? Well, one recipe I meet frequently is the recipe on the cardboard wrapper for my bars of Baker’s Unsweetened Baking Chocolate (100% Cacao). Without actually baking a batch of those brownies, what might I expect based on the ingredients in the recipe itself? Well, let’s look at the ingredients and analyze what the numbers tell us.
Baker’s Brownies – 9″ x 13″ pan – middle oven rack – directions below have been modified somewhat, but the ingredients match those included with the chocolate bar.
Unsweetened Chocolate – 4 oz.
Unsalted Butter – 6 oz.
—–Melted in a double boiler and allowed to cool.
Sugar – 14 oz.
Eggs – 3 whole
Vanilla Extract – 1 tsp.
Salt – none
—–Whisked.
AP Flour – 5 oz.
Baking Powder – none
—–Whisked.
Baked at 350° F for 35 minutes.
Notes – Unsweetened chocolate is about 50% cocoa butter (fat) and 50% cocoa solids (flavor) – that gives us 2 oz. each of cocoa butter and cocoa solids.
Analysis:
% Fat from Cocoa Butter = 2 oz. cocoa butter / (2 oz. cocoa butter + 6 oz. butter) = 25%
Fudge Factor = Cocoa and Butter as a Percentage of Flour = (6 oz. butter + 2 oz. cocoa butter + 2 oz. cocoa solids) / 5 oz. flour = about 200%
Ratio of Cocoa Solids to Sugar = 2 oz. cocoa solids / 14 oz. sugar = about 14%
The first two calculations here yield ratios that are fairly close to the ones I got in the recipe for Unsweetened Chocolate Brownies in the previous post – I would expect, more-or-less, a similar consistency and structure in these brownies. Looking at the ingredients list critically, I’d be willing to bet these would end up on the thin side – and my heavy-handed Taurus sensibilities are having NONE of that! But I digress. The big difference here is in the Ratio of Cocoa Solids to Sugar. This recipe calls for a HUGE amount of sugar – so huge, in fact, that I would suspect that these brownies would bake-up cloyingly sweet – the amount of sweetness from the sugar in this recipe would WAY exceed the amount needed to adequately pair with the amount of chocolate flavor (cocoa solids) in this recipe. Personally, I would drop the amount of sugar to about 10 oz. Brownies should be sweet, but they shouldn’t set your teeth on edge.
Let’s try one more sample analysis. This recipe came to me by way of Leite’s Culinaria – overall an amazing culinary blog.
ROBERT’S ABSOLUTE BEST BROWNIE RECIPE – 8″ x 8″ pan – middle oven rack.
Bittersweet Chocolate – 8 oz.
Unsalted Butter – 3 oz.
—–Melted in a double boiler and allowed to cool.
Sugar – 5.25 oz.
Eggs – 3 whole
Vanilla Extract – 2 tsp.
Salt – none
—–Whisked.
AP Flour – 1.25 oz. (wow – that’s a tiny amount of flour)
Baking Powder – none
—–Whisked.
Topped with nuts.
Baked at 350° F for 30 minutes.
Notes – Bittersweet chocolate is about 50% sugar, 30% cocoa butter, and 20% cocoa solids – that gives us 4 oz. sugar, 2.4 oz. cocoa butter, and 1.6 oz. cocoa solids.
Analysis:
% Fat from Cocoa Butter = 2.4 oz. cocoa butter / (2.4 oz. cocoa butter + 3 oz. butter) = 44.4%
Fudge Factor = Cocoa and Butter as a Percentage of Flour = (3 oz. butter + 2.4 oz. cocoa butter + 1.6 oz. cocoa solids) / 1.25 oz. flour = about 560% WOW
Ratio of Cocoa Solids to Sugar = 1.6 oz. cocoa solids / (5.25 oz. + 4 oz. sugar) = about 17.3%
Here, we have something of a maverick recipe. With a % Fat from Cocoa Butter of 44.4%, I would expect these brownies to have a firm and chewy and rich texture from all the cocoa butter in the recipe. The real zinger in this recipe is the huge “Fudge Factor” – the amount of flour in this recipe is TINY – so I would expect these brownies to be “fudgy” to the point of being almost un-risen squares of fudge. Finally, I would expect these brownies to be just a little bit too sweet for my taste. But if you like your brownies so “fudgy” that they look almost wet throughout, a recipe like this one might be your cup-of-tea.
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Let me finish off my discussion of brownies for now with two more specific examples and the results. Both of these examples will be variations on the Triple Chocolate Brownie recipe from my last post – as I mentioned in that post, this is my personal favorite go-to recipe for brownies. I like the complexity of the chocolate flavor and I find the recipe to be very welcoming to tasty variations.
It is worth saying again that a great brownie will ALWAYS be the brownie that YOU like best, not necessarily the brownie I like best. The purpose of this post and the previous post is to present you with examples that I hope will establish a basis from which you can work-out your own recipe for perfection.
Looking back at my previous post, I realize that I started things off with a strong plug for Fannie Merritt Farmer and her flour-rationing approach to brownies – but the examples I provided didn’t do much to show you how flour changes things in a brownie recipe. Instead, my three examples were more of an examination of how changes in the amount of cocoa butter changes texture in different recipes.
So, to get back to the roots of the brownie philosophy, let me show you two variations on a brownie theme. Below are two examples where I have varied the flour content in the Triple Chocolate Brownie recipe that I used in the last post. You’ll see that I also played with some of the chocolate and flavor elements, but the primary structural change will come from using more or less flour in the mix.
Variation 1 – Cakey Orange-Chocolate Brownies – 8″ x 8″ pan – lower middle oven rack.
Unsweetened Chocolate – 2 oz.
Bittersweet Chocolate Chips – 3 oz.
Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips – 2 oz.
Unsweetened Cocoa Powder – 1/2 oz. (about 3 Tbsp.)
Unsalted Butter – 4 oz. (1 stick)
—–Melted in a double boiler and allowed to cool.
Sugar – 9 oz.
Eggs – 3 whole
Vanilla Extract – 1 tsp.
Seeds Scraped from 1/2 Vanilla Bean Pod
Zest from 2 Small Oranges
Salt – 1 tsp. (a little more here to brighten the orange flavor)
—–Whisked.
AP Flour – 6 oz. (1 oz. more flour here – more flour means more “cakey”)
Baking Powder – 3/4 tsp.
—–Whisked.
Baked at 350° F for 40 minutes.
Notes – So I have four different sources of chocolate in this recipe so the analysis is more messy – but everything just boils down to separating each type of chocolate into its individual components of fat (cocoa butter), flavor (cocoa solids), and sugar. Unsweetened chocolate is about 50% cocoa butter (fat) and 50% cocoa solids (flavor) – that gives us 1 oz. each of cocoa butter and cocoa solids. Bittersweet chocolate (chips) is about 50% sugar, 30% cocoa butter, and 20% cocoa solids – that gives us 1.5 oz. sugar, .9 oz. cocoa butter, and .6 oz. cocoa solids. The semi-sweet chocolate (chips) is about 55% sugar, 30 % cocoa butter, and 15% cocoa solids (OK, yeah, I’ve done a little rounding on the bittersweet and semi-sweet chocolates to simplify calculation – but I haven’t fundamentally misrepresented the proportions) – that gives us 1.1 oz. sugar, .6 oz. cocoa butter, and .3 oz. cocoa solids. Finally the unsweetened cocoa powder is about 10% cocoa butter and 90% cocoa solids – that gives us roughly .05 oz. of cocoa butter and .45 oz. of cocoa solids. We need to consider the components from all three chocolates in our analysis below. Adding-up the components from all four chocolates gives us: total cocoa butter = 1 oz. + .9 oz. + .6 oz. + .05 oz. = 2.55 oz., total cocoa solids = 1 oz. + .6 oz. + .3 oz. + .45 oz. = 2.35 oz., and total sugar from chocolate = 1.5 oz. + 1.1 oz. = 2.6 oz.
Analysis:
% Fat from Cocoa Butter = 2.55 oz. total cocoa butter / (2.55 oz. total cocoa butter + 4 oz. butter) = 38.9%
Fudge Factor = Cocoa and Butter as a Percentage of Flour = (4 oz. butter + 2.55 oz. total cocoa butter + 2.35 oz. total cocoa solids) / 6 oz. flour = 148% – the lower number here indicates that I should have a “cakier” brownie
Ratio of Cocoa Solids to Sugar = 2.35 oz. total cocoa solids / (9 oz. + 2.6 oz. sugar) = about 20.3%
More Flour – More Structure – More “Cakey”
So finally, with this example, I go back to the heart of Fannie Merritt Farmers original idea – to control the structure of a baked confection by controlling the amount of flour in the recipe. In this case, I increased the amount of flour in my brownie batter by 1 oz. and got a taller, airier, more “cakey” brownie. Delicious? Yes! But I have to admit that my own preference is for something less “cakey” and more “fudgy.” I’ll reduce the flour in my next example.
Variation 2 – Middle-Of-The-Road “Fudgy”/”Cakey” Espresso-Spiked Chocolate Brownies (with Pecans) – 8″ x 8″ pan – lower middle oven rack.
Unsweetened Chocolate – 2 oz.
Bittersweet Chocolate Chips – 1 oz.
Semi-Sweet Chocolate Bar – 4 oz.
Unsweetened Cocoa Powder – 1/2 oz. (about 3 Tbsp.)
Instant Espresso Powder – 2 Tbsp.
Unsalted Butter – 4 oz. (1 stick)
—–Melted in a double boiler and allowed to cool.
Sugar – 9 oz.
Eggs – 3 whole
Vanilla Extract – 1 tsp.
Seeds Scraped from 1/2 Vanilla Bean Pod
Salt – 3/4 tsp.
—–Whisked.
AP Flour – 4.5 oz. (1/2 oz. less flour here – less flour means more “fudgy”)
Baking Powder – 3/4 tsp.
—–Whisked.
Baked at 350° F for 40 minutes.
Notes – Again I have four different sources of chocolate in this recipe. Unsweetened chocolate is about 50% cocoa butter (fat) and 50% cocoa solids (flavor) – that gives us 1 oz. each of cocoa butter and cocoa solids. Bittersweet chocolate (chips) is about 50% sugar, 30% cocoa butter, and 20% cocoa solids – that gives us .5 oz. sugar, .3 oz. cocoa butter, and .2 oz. cocoa solids. The semi-sweet chocolate bar is about 45% sugar, 35 % cocoa butter, and 25% cocoa solids – that gives us 1.8 oz. sugar, 1.4 oz. cocoa butter, and 1 oz. cocoa solids. Finally the unsweetened cocoa powder is about 10% cocoa butter and 90% cocoa solids – that gives us roughly .05 oz. of cocoa butter and .45 oz. of cocoa solids. We need to consider the components from all three chocolates in our analysis below. Adding-up the components from all four chocolates gives us: total cocoa butter = 1 oz. + .3 oz. + 1.4 oz. + .05 oz. = 2.75 oz., total cocoa solids = 1 oz. + .2 oz. + 1 oz. + .45 oz. = 2.65 oz., and total sugar from chocolate = .5 oz. + 1.8 oz. = 2.3 oz.
Analysis:
% Fat from Cocoa Butter = 2.75 oz. total cocoa butter / (2.75 oz. total cocoa butter + 4 oz. butter) = 40.7%
Fudge Factor = Cocoa and Butter as a Percentage of Flour = (4 oz. butter + 2.75 oz. total cocoa butter + 2.65 oz. total cocoa solids) / 4.5 oz. flour = 209% – OK, not the largest ratio in the world here, but remember to think relatively – this recipe should be “fudgier” than the original with 5 oz. flour that I prepared in the previous post
Ratio of Cocoa Solids to Sugar = 2.65 oz. total cocoa solids / (9 oz. + 2.3 oz. sugar) = about 23.5%
A Little Less Flour – A Little Less Structure – A Little More “Fudgy”
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What’s Missing Here? To cover the brownie issue as completely as possible, I realize that I have two significant gaps in what I have presented here: (1) I haven’t given full consideration of brownies made from fancy-pants unsweetened cocoa powders with a higher cocoa butter content – I’ll get around to that sometime in the next couple of weeks, & (2) I haven’t provided you an example where the brownies are REALLY “fudgy” – I promise I’ll correct that omission when I address the cocoa powder issue.
So please stay tuned to my brownie saga. One great thing I have learned with all these batches of brownies is that, while I may have well-established preferences for what I like in a brownie, ALL brownies are pretty awesome any time of day…especially with some ice-cold milk or coffee. I also learned that my neighbors don’t seem to be NEARLY as picky as I am – they have been uniformly ecstatic with every batch I have shared. As it turns out, good fences is NOT what makes good neighbors. Some still-warm brownies, on the other hand….
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