Baking brownies is deceptively easy. At their core they couldn’t be simpler – chocolate, flour, sugar, eggs – simple right? And ideal Midnight Baking! But then if you’re anything like me, you can be discerningly critical of the finished product. Too dry, too dense, not enough chocolate – when it comes down to it, it can seem impossible for a ‘simple’ recipe to live up to those ‘simple’ expectations.
And this was the problem I was having. I tried countless recipes, and although I always enjoyed the process of baking brownies, I wasn’t completely satisfied with the results.
And then a few of months ago I was out at a bar for happy hour, and suddenly everyone started talking about brownie baking (OK I started talking about brownie baking). I was complaining to a friend about my most recent batch that came out with a nice intense chocolate flavor, but were so dense that they were practically fudge. And then a girl at the end of the bar (who clearly started happy hour earlier than we did) piped up and said ‘try whipping the egg whites first’. And then she went back to her drink.
I thought about it for a minute, and then tried it that night. Absolutely genius! Whipping the egg whites gave just the right amount of lift to the brownie, so I could keep that deep chocolate flavor but puff it up to the proper brownie texture. Finally nailed it – a simple and satisfuing basic brownie!!
Ingredients:
- 5 Tbsp butter
- 1/3 c unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 2 eggs, separated
- ½ cup flour
- ½ tsp baking powder
- Optional: ½ cup chocolate chips (or 2/3 cup mini chocolate chips)
Process:
- Heat oven to 350°F, grease an 8×8 square pan and line with baking parchment
- Melt butter over low heat in a medium saucepan, then add cocoa and sugar and stir until smooth. Remove pan from heat.
- In a separate bowl, whip egg whites until frothy and doubled in size
- Gently fold egg whites into cocoa mixture
- Once whites are incorporated, add egg yolks and stir until evenly combined
- In a small bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt
- Add flour mixture to cocoa batter, and stir
- If you’re using chocolate chips, stir them in here (toss chips first with a pinch of flour to prevent them from sinking to the bottom during baking).
- Pour batter intro prepared pan, bake for 25-30 minutes
