Actually a loaf pan perfectly fits a half batch.
But yeah, it was just my first thought so I shared it. 
If you can find caster sugar from sugar cane and use only that sugar in the recipe, I think it will make a difference as far as thin crust development.
1 Like
Beet sugar and cane sugar are both chemically sucrose, so if the video guy’s analysis is right, it shouldn’t matter - other than the ability to dissolve.
@naf if you only heated the butter slightly, it’s entirely possible that the sugar didn’t dissolve enough for a crust per the video guy’s experiments.
1 Like
They don’t behave the same. In my experience, beet sugar wont caramelize like cane sugar.
Yes, it’s possible the mixture wasn’t hot enough to dissolve enough of the sugar. Caster sugar dissolves easier than American granulated sugar, though. Also, @Saregama’s 40 strokes could be helping dissolve more sugar. (Just saw you added this theory above.)
@Saregama, do you use cold eggs?
Yes, the recipe calls for cold eggs added one at a time.
And actually the 40 strokes are in the recipe - I just looked again.
Epi’s picture looks like mine, with the crust. SK’s doesn’t - it looks like the one in your bakeoff link.
Agree on caramelizing sugar - but even different cane sugar brands don’t caramelize the same way.
1 Like
It’s possible many of us are subconsciously avoiding the strokes because we fear gluten development.
The brownies in the video use unsweetened chocolate. (I only watched 5 minutes through, in case he also tests with cocoa powder.) I wonder how much of a difference that makes.
I wish I could test all the variables. How much the butter is heated, strokes vs no strokes, etc. And I have all the ingredients in my pantry, too. “Natural” cocoa, Dutched cocoa, unsweetened chocolate. Beet sugar, granulated cane sugar, extrafine (caster) cane sugar, turbinado sugar. Unfortunately I’m laying off sweets at the moment because we’re hoping to visit Manhattan this weekend. But I’m excited to try this recipe again and see what happens. I really need a cocoa-based brownie recipe with a crust.
He tests many of these - it’s worth watching the whole thing, because he debunks most of the popular explanations.
Most of these recipes are barely a step above flourless chocolate cake - Medrich uses 1/2 cup flour for the full recipe (2 eggs, 10T butter), and the high fat proportion probably inhibits gluten anyway.
2 Likes
My favorite brownie recipe, Robert’s Absolute Best Brownies from David Lebovitz, is nearly a flourless cake, and it specifies that you MUST beat the batter vigorously for one full minute, until the batter gets glossy and starts to pull away from the edges of the bowl. You need some gluten to make a brownie as opposed to fudge or cake, and you have to work pretty hard to overdo it with so little flour and so much chocolate and fat. However, this recipe does not produce a thin, shiny top layer, no matter how much you beat it. Possibly because there isn’t a lot of sugar?
3 Likes
