Perfect Brownies

Our editor-in-chief’s perfect brownie is chewy, fudgy-with-a-touch-of-cakey, with a shiny, crackled top and lightly crisp edges for the side- and corner-piece lovers. Finding the right ingredients and steps to achieve perfection takes time, but it’s a challenge we happily took on. No matter their texture, all brownies have the same base ingredients—flour, sugar, chocolate, eggs, and fat (usually butter)—but it’s a matter of ratios and how the ingredients are combined that makes the difference in a recipe.

The first criteria of a fudgy brownie is to have more fat than flour, but equally important is how the sugar is incorporated into the fat. When creaming butter and sugar, air is incorporated into the mixture, which, in brownies, creates a cakier texture. Since we wanted a majority fudgy texture, we melted the butter, chocolate, and sugar together in a double boiler, which does not add air. However, because we wanted a hint of cakey texture in these brownies, we added a small amount of baking powder to bring a controlled amount of air, or rise, into the batter.

Melting the butter and sugar together does more than create a fudgy texture in your brownies; it also contributes to the brownies’ shiny, flaky top. The sugar in the brownies needs to dissolve smoothly into the butter and chocolate, but sugar doesn’t melt easily in fat. During recipe testing, we learned that even though using granulated sugar created a slightly crackled top, it did not give us the level of sheen we wanted. A simple swap to confectioners’ sugar allowed for quick and smooth melting into the butter—its finely ground consistency dissolves in the small amount of water that butter contains a lot easier than granulated sugar does. Once in the oven, the sugar recrystallizes and forms a thin film on the brownie batter that becomes the signature glossy, flaky top.