Brownies are the square treats so many people love, standing out for their intense chocolate flavour and a texture somewhere between cake and cookie. Let's look at each brownie texture.
Brownies, or chocolate brownies, are flat, square or bar-shaped baked treats first developed in the United States in the late 19th century and loved in both the US and Canada. In the first half of the 20th century, the brownie was considered a cross between a cake and a cookie and was often part of a packed lunch, because it is easy to eat by hand and goes well with milk or coffee. This made brownies hugely popular in restaurants, and they appear in many forms on dessert menus.
By texture, brownies can be divided into four types:
1. Fudgy Brownie
A moist, chewy brownie with a delicious shiny, crackly top. Fudgy brownies use little flour, usually about half a cup, and no baking powder. The butter is melted rather than creamed with sugar, which keeps the brownie moist. The star is the chocolate: we recommend real unsweetened couverture chocolate, with sugar added to taste. You can use white or brown sugar, as you prefer.
Tip: the darker the sugar, the more caramel aroma your brownies will have.
2. Cake-Like Brownie
A soft, cake-like brownie. Cakey brownies use less butter than usual and more flour than fudgy brownies, plus baking powder to make the crumb softer and lighter.
For cakey brownies, the butter is creamed with sugar rather than melted with chocolate. This adds air, giving the brownies a taller, lighter crumb.
Tip: some recipes add a little milk for an even softer texture.
3. Chewy Brownie
A soft, moist brownie. The chewy texture comes from using more eggs and a mix of chocolate types.
- With unsweetened chocolate, the texture is chewier.
- With semi-sweet chocolate, the texture is softer than with unsweetened chocolate.
Tip: mix both types of chocolate and add 1–2 tablespoons of cocoa powder for an even chewier brownie.
4. Blondie
A dense, chewy yet moist bar with a caramel-like flavour, cut into golden bars or squares. Blondies are made with brown sugar, butter and eggs, and some people add nuts, but they contain no chocolate or cocoa powder. The texture is similar to a cakey brownie.
Popular Chocolates for Brownies
The standout flavour in brownies is chocolate, their key ingredient. Chocolate comes in many forms, and the types most commonly used are:
- Unsweetened chocolate: pure chocolate with no added sugar, also known as bitter chocolate, baking chocolate, chocolate liquor or pure chocolate.
- Dark chocolate: contains 35% or more pure chocolate, with the rest made up of sugar and cocoa butter. Both bittersweet and semisweet chocolate are dark chocolates, differing slightly in their proportion of pure chocolate and sugar.
- Dutch-processed cocoa powder: cocoa powder that has been alkalised to reduce its acidity, giving it a milder flavour and darker colour.
