I’m not big on desserts except for cheesecake and ice cream (I can never say no to any of these two) but every now and then, the occasional brownie gets me going so I looked for a recipe from my one and only Babish. Saw he had a brownie episode and tried his recipe!
I had to replace a few things because I have no access to these ingredients. I’m in a small town in Brazil called Itacaré and while most ingredients are available, I have to tell you that language barrier is real and 95% of the things are labeled in Portuguese. A few times I bought the wrong things because despite the help of every traveler’s handy dandy Google translator, sometimes it’s wrong. I’ve had a few recipe fails because of this, too.
So here goes nothing!
Wet Mix
- 1 ¾ cup white sugar
- 225 grams unsalted butter, melted
- 1 ½ tsp espresso powder
- 1 tsp vanilla extract (I didn’t have any but still turned out GREAT)
- 4 eggs
(add these to the wet mixture when the set of ingredients above have been combined)
- 1 cup cocoa powder
- ½ cup vegetable oil (had to substitute with sunflower oil cause I couldn’t find vegetable oil)
- 150 grams bittersweet chocolate, chopped (I found a Hershey’s chocolate bar with 60% cacao. Also, I find this to be an optional ingredient as the batter itself creates a very melty, fudge brownie depending on how long you cook it)
Dry Mix
- 1 ½ cups bread flour (I still used all purpose flour as I couldn’t find bread flour)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp kosher salt (I always use just regular salt you commonly find in supermarkets)
Procedure
Preheat your oven to 180°C or 350°F. Coat your pan with oil, cover in parchment paper, and coat again with oil to ensure the brownies don’t stick to the pan when it’s done. Use a 9″ x 13″ pan or whatever you have, just make sure to adjust the cook time.
Mix all dry ingredients. Mix all wet ingredients. Slowly incorporate the Dry Mix in the Wet Mix until they are harmoniously combined. Pour the mixture into the pan and spread evenly. Bake for 25 to 35 minutes, depending on how you like it done and especially depending on your oven as every oven is different.
Do the cook check by poking a toothpick into the brownies and see if the toothpick comes out clean. If yes, it’s been cooked all the way through! If you want it a but melty, undercook for a little bit.
Enjoy these delicious pieces but don’t overeat like I did!
Mayan Around Town 