Cooking For Engineers

[Jim Cooley]

Let's start with the brownies. I make the recipe from Joy of Cooking exactly as stated using the recommended 9"x13" Pyrex pan. All ingredients are at room temp, and I use 4 oz. unsweetened Baker's chocolate and butter (not shortening). Oven well preheated to exactly 350 ° F. Recipe calls for 25 minutes, and I'm up to 29 and counting and they STILL come out too moist and not chewy enough.

What do I do here to achieve more chewiness? More flour? (don't really want too much cakiness, though) Less eggs? More sugar (don't want to go there. they are almost too sweet already). More time in the inferno?

And on to the whipped cream...
I tried to make whipped cream last night to top off one of the aforementioned brownies, but it wouldn't whip! Isn't it cold bowl and utensils for whipped cream and room temp for egg whites -- or do I have it backwards and am getting Alzheimer's?

Maybe it was just the bowl -- tiny little mixing bowl into which the beaters barely fit. They had enough room to do their job though, so I don't quite understand what went wrong... I even tried a hand whisk first and they wouldn't whip, so that's when I pulled out the electric mixer.

Aside from that, the combination was delicious!

[Dilbert]

generally in baking fats (butter and egg in this case) make things "softer"
sugar likes moisture and makes the "damper"

so if it's already too sweet, cutting back on the sugar is the best bet.

brownies also tend to "set up" a bit after they are thoroughly cooled down. don't judge "straight out of the oven"

>>whipped cream
the cold bowl / utensils is right.
I have a small whisk that goes in my hand mixer - does a bang up job -

[Jim Cooley]

Thanks Dilbert. I'll give it a try.

I let them cool overnight before cutting.

What if I eliminated some of the butter instead of the sugar? Would that have an equal effect, or is the sugar holding the water in?

Main aim ideal is less moist and more chewy.

[Dilbert]

worth a shot - fats do the "more tender" thing.

thing is, people prefer their brownies "different" - so even following an recipe to a T^2, no warranty it's "how you like it"