Best brownie recipe - preferably using milk chocolate?

November 13, 2004 12:21 AM

Can anybody recommend a good chocolate brownie recipe? Preferably using milk chocolate.
posted by jedro to Food & Drink (6 answers total)

Best answer: Brownie recipes typically involve cocoa powder, not actual chocolate, so this may be a tall order indeed.

That said, I made Alton Brown's Cocoa Brownies the other night, following the directions in the Good Eats transcript beyond what the printed recipe says. Mmmm...fudgy goodness. It's amazing how decadent you can make a dessert just by using two sticks of butter and four eggs for nine servings.
posted by mdeatherage at 4:47 AM on November 13, 2004

I think you are going to have difficulty finding a recipe with milk chocolate because that would make the recipe too sweet. You need the combination of sugar, flour, eggs to get the cake-like consistency and mouth-feel. I could be wrong, but I don't see how you could make brownies without the sugar -- sugar plus milk chocolate is going to be too sweet. My favorite recipe calls for unsweetened chocolate:

4 oz unsweetened chocolate, preferably gourmet quality
10 TB unsweetened butter
3 large eggs.
2 tsp vanilla
1 3/4 Cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 Cup all purpose flour.

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line an 8 by 8 inch pan (note: size is important) with parchment paper or grease with butter.

Melt the chocolate and butter in the microwave on 50 percent power for 2 minutes OR in a heavy cooking pot on low heat. Whisk the eggs and vanilla together in mixing bowl and add in the melted chocolate: not that the mixture will thicken considerably. Add all other ingredients with wooden spoon, stirring just until mixed.

Pour into prepared pan and bake about 50 minutes. If you have used parchment paper the brownie can be lifted out in one piece and cooled on a wire rack.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 6:59 AM on November 13, 2004

although this recipe calls for bitter chocolate, the resulting brownies are very sweet and rich. [they have more sugar and less flour than most. they're fairly chewy and fudgy as brownies go - but, then those dry cardboard brownies most people make from brownie mixes are awful.] i haven't tried using milk chocolate, but i suspect that secret life of gravy is right: the resulting brownies would be a little _too_ rich.

2 squares of unsweetened chocolate (baking chocolate, not a candy bar),
1/4 cup of butter
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup flour

melt butter. melt chocolate in the same pan as the melted butter; be careful not to burn the chocolate. in a separate bowl, mix: sugar, egg, salt, and flour. add chocolate/butter mixture to bowl. mix. pour into greased baking pan [greased with butter, hopefully] and bake at 350 for 20-22 minutes. the brownies will seem half-baked but will harden as they cool. let them cool for at least 10 minutes before serving. [i've found that making a double batch and baking in a glass cassarole dish is generally best for the cooking process and also for the number of brownies that result.]
posted by ubersturm at 9:06 AM on November 13, 2004

By "milk chocolate", I think you must mean you don't want the taste and character of "dark chocolate." As S.L. O'Gravy implies, that's not really how you get the effect. Milk chocolate is very seldom used for cooking -- it just doesn't work very well. The milk and eggs and flour in the mix can give you a "milk-chocolate" character, so don't worry.
posted by lodurr at 10:56 AM on November 13, 2004

What about brownies with white chocolate (though I guess they wouldn't be brownies then...)?
posted by humuhumu at 2:10 PM on November 13, 2004

What is this "white chocolate" substance, anyway? (An abomination, that's what.)
posted by lodurr at 6:02 AM on November 15, 2004