Cook it Fresh

Homemade brownies on the left, brownies from a mix on the right

I am fully aware that I am wading into the middle of  a gastronomic minefield with this entry, and it may be a bit ambitious for my second post.  After all, everyone has an opinion about how brownies should taste, and everyone’s opinion is different.  Some like their brownies more fudgy, some like them more cakey;  some sweeter, some richer;  some thinner, some thicker – and the list could go on.  I personally am more on the fudgy, rich brownie side and recently stumbled upon the best, fudgiest, yummiest brownie recipe I have yet tried.  I was struck by a sudden chocolate craving one evening but the only chocolate I could find in the house was cocoa powder.  A google search for “cocoa powder brownies” yielded the very quick, easy recipe below and I have made it several times since.  Now that I have a favorite, tried-and-true brownie recipe I wondered how it would measure up to boxed brownie mixes.  I’ve never been much of a fan of brownies made from a box.  I find them cloyingly sweet and a bit funny tasting but I do understand the lure of a convenient mix that cuts out the need for a lot of measuring.   Knowing that I already had a bias against boxed brownies, I brought in reinforcements and we did a blind taste test comparing my homemade brownies to those made from a box.  I only had three people in on this experiment, not exactly statistically significant, I know,  but it was all I had to work with.  The results appear below :

Cocoa Powder Brownies

• 5 Tbsp. cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup oil
• 3/4 cup flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 eggs

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, mix all ingredients together well.

2.  Pour into an 8×8 inch square pan.

3.  Bake in the preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes or until set and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out with a few crumbs still clinging to it.

As you can see, this is about the easiest brownie recipe ever.  It has a minimum of measuring and mixing, no melting of chocolate or butter and only gets one bowl dirty, making for very easy cleanup.  The results are also superb.  These brownies really benefit from the addition of about 1 teaspoon espresso powder added to the batter, but, in the interest of a more fair comparison, I omitted the espresso powder in this batch.  Even without the extra punch that the espresso powder provides, all 3 testers preferred this brownie to the ones made from a box.   They described the homemade brownies as “dense” and “rich” and said they had more of a chocolate flavor than the brownies made from a mix.  These brownies were also both cheaper and faster to make.  They cost about $2.24 for an 8×8 inch pan and took me just 35 minutes to produce.  The one drawback we found to these brownies was the appearance.  They are a bit dull and flat looking comparing to the Pillsbury brownies.

Since I was starting from the assumption that fudgy brownies are automatically better than cakey ones (my apologies to those who are on the cakey side of the debate)  I used a Pillsbury brownie mix called”Fudge Supreme” in the hopes that it would have a similar texture to the Cocoa Powder Brownie recipe.  Alas, these hopes were not realized.  Although the brownies from the mix were technically fudgy, they were also very sticky and chewy rather than having a dense, crumbly texture.  One tester said they had a “metallic” taste and the others agreed.  As I mentioned before, I find boxed brownies are often too sweet and these were no exception.  The boxed brownies also took longer to cook and were a bit more expensive than those made from scratch.  Counting the mix itself and the eggs and oil you add to the dry mix, these brownies ended up costing about $3.28 and took 48 minutes to make.  However, I must add that I made them in an 8×8 inch pan so that they would be comparable to my homemade recipe, and this required a longer cooking time than if I had made a 9×13 inch pan from the same mix.  The brownies from a mix did have a nicer appearance though, yielding thick, moist looking squares with an attractive, crinkly top.

Plate of Pillsbury Fudge Supreme Brownies

Bottom Line:

There wasn’t enough of a difference in price or time to  make a boxed mix worthwhile and the flavor was noticeably inferior.  If you’re going for a dense, rich, more grown-up tasting brownie, I suggest using a recipe similar to the one above and definitely try it with a little espresso powder mixed in.  However, if you’re making brownies for kids, they might prefer the thick, sweet, gooey slabs resulting from a boxed mix.  Also, if appearance is paramount, you might consider using a mix.

Cocoa Powder Brownies                                              Pillsbury Fudge Supreme Brownies

Price:  $2.24                                                                             Price:  $3.28

Time:  35 minutes                                                                    Time:  48 minutes

And, no, I am not only going to test baked goods on this blog, although it is tempting!   So, now I should go run a few miles, and next I will compare marinara sauce:  from a jar or homemade?