April 10, 2008

Two Brownie Recipes in Two days..

I love brownies! To know me better, know me as a gal whose favourite desserts is warm brownie top with ice-cream. :P I simply adore baked warm desserts top wth ice-cream, such as waffles, apple crumble...etc. But brownies would be my favourite. Just that I may need to go running the next day after indulging in it. LOL :D


We had our girly gathering last week at Kexian's house...I promised to bake some brownies for them, which they recalled was one of my 'specialty'...I had tried a few brownie recipes in the past, most of them were pretty good. I decided to try out this perfect fudgy brownies from Nic - Bakingbites which I had been wanting to try out for a long time.

In this recipe, Nic introduces a special technique that would deliver something which is what I'd like in a brownie...fudgy, chocolately, not cakey, with a good crust. The special method involves baking the brownies at a high temperature for about 20 minutes, then dunking the pan in an ice bath. This recipe originated from Alice Medrich's Cookies and Brownie, whom through many floggers, that her chocolate recipes are good. Forget about the fat and calories, I knew I had to try it! For detailed explanation of the methods, do visit her blog. :)

The result? It was truly chocolatety and dense. I brought over to Xian's house. She had it warmed and we had it with raspberry ice-cream! However, they felt that it was a tad too soft. It kinda crumbled easily. They commented that my previous brownie seemed to be better. My previous recipe actually came from Happy HomeBaker's Nut and Chocolate Chip Brownies.

Since I had decided to give the remaining brownies to my colleagues and there wasn't enough, I decided to bake another batch using Happy Homebaker's recipe again so that I can have a direct side to side comparison! So here I am, with another batch of bronwies the next day.

Notice the difference in colour tone? The lighter brown colour, with shiny flaky crust is the recipe from Happy Homebaker's. Very easy to identify the difference right? :) I'm sure you would like to know my verdict after testing out these two recipes. Ok, here's my comparison. ;)


Perfect Fudgy Brownies

  • Uses Butter
  • Without choco chips
  • Rough, dry top
  • more chocolatety & buttery
  • Sweeter
  • Denser, shorter
  • Granulated sugar

Nut & Choco Chip Brownie

  • Uses Oil (healthier)
  • Addition of choco chips
  • Shiny, flaky top
  • Less chocolatety, milder flavour
  • Less sweet
  • Puffed up more - higher
  • Brown sugar

Personally, for me and my permanent gourment taster who has a sweeter tooth, and really likes chocolates, would prefer the darker one, i.e. the perfect fudgy brownie. However, I do find it on the oily side when warmed. It's best to refrigerate it least for a few hours. My mum and one colloague who preferred not too sweet stuffs actually preferred the other one.

I would say both are really good brownie recipes. They are definitely not the cakey type. I brought it to my colleagues and be it either one of them, they said it was nice nice! :D

So which one would you prefer?? ;)

5 comments:

Esther said...

Hey Aimei

Both of your brownies look yummy yummy! Tho different in colour tone and i believe the taste also different, they should be yummilicious. Warm brownies really go well with ice cream, especially vanilla (in my case lah! ;p)

esther

Anonymous said...

looks yummy! i love the color on the lighter tone 1 + the crust! :D i guess it depends on what u are matching these babies with, if icecream, i dun mind those harder, solid brownies :P but on its own den i prefer a more moist and dense taste.

looking at yr pics make me hungry le! >.<

Amanda

Happy Homebaker said...

I love both!!! Now you make me want to bake a batch right away :D

daphne said...

I will probably go for the fudgy one wiht the crisp top. =)

Aimei said...

Esther, Amanda: Yes yes they are great with ice-cream! Hee.. :P

HHB: I love both too, Thanks for sharing that recipe. :) My colleagues said they were nice and I'm sharing with them the recipe too!

Daphne: Yeap the crisp one is good, not so sweet and healthier. I was thinking how what contribute to that crisp top texture which definitely makes it look very appealing :)