Gingerbread Brownies (2024)

FAQs

How to pimp brownies? ›

Add a teaspoon of instant coffee or espresso powder. Throw in a handful of nuts—pecans, walnuts, macadamia, whatever you have on hand. Scoop in a palmful of dried or frozen fruit. Add an extra splash of the top-shelf vanilla extract, or a dab of vanilla paste, or a dash of vanilla powder, to the batter.

Chewy brownies must be slightly under-baked. One of the top mistakes to avoid when making brownies is waiting until there's no more crumbs on the toothpick to pull the pan from the oven. By that point they're close to over-baked, and you will lose out on that chewiness you want.

Fall Back on Butter

Most boxed brownies use canola or vegetable oil. Sub in the same amount of melted butter for brilliant results. This makes the brownies that much richer and more delicious. Bonus points if it's high-quality, like our Test Kitchen's favorite butter.

A more certain result is to choose a brownie recipe that has a higher amount of chocolate and butter. A brownie recipe with baking powder should be avoided as you'll most certainly end up with a cakey texture. Another reason your brownies may be cakey is too much mixing or beating during the cooking process.

Fruits and Nuts

“When I make brownies or blondies, I like to add toasted nuts for extra crunch and flavor,” says culinary editor Genevieve Yam. “Any nut will do, but my favorites are pecans and walnuts.” Feel free to chop them up and mix them into the batter, or add them on top for even more visual appeal.

One change is to use milk or heavy cream instead of water. This change will make brownies more moist and gooey since milk is more fatty and flavorful than water. A second change is to use butter instead of oil. For similar reasons to using milk, butter adds a rich and more decadent quality to the batter.

Fudgy brownies have a higher fat-to-flour ratio than cakey ones. So add more fat—in this case, butter and chocolate. A cakey batch has more flour and relies on baking powder for leavening. The amount of sugar and eggs does not change whether you're going fudgy or cakey.

If you want a fudgy chocolate brownie, use melted butter. For cakey brownies, beating softened butter and sugar together to create air pockets will make your brownies lighter and cakier.

Butter Brownies: These were much fudgier, softer, and had a melt-in-your-mouth texture. The crust was much shinier and crinklier and the flavor was significantly better than the oil brownies.

If you want to get a little more creative with your brownie mix hacks, add an extra egg to the batter. The extra protein will help thicken up the batter and make it fluffier, creating a more decadent, fudgy texture. You can also add the yolk by itself in addition to the 2 eggs a box brownie mix typically calls for.

Why is boxed brownie mix better? ›

Boxed Brownies:

Box brownie mixes call for vegetable oil as the shortening, which makes them nice and chewy. The chocolate comes from cocoa powder, which gives box brownies a lighter, less rich chocolate flavor than the homemade variety. Most people say brownies from a mix remind them of childhood.

Replacing Oil with Butter

It couldn't be easier to substitute butter for oil using a 1:1 ratio. This should work with olive, canola, vegetable, and coconut oils. Simply melt and cool the butter to room temperature, then continue with your recipe. (If the recipe calls for ½ cup oil, use ½ cup melted and cooled butter.)

You might have used too much baking powder - leavening agents can create an acidic taste.

For context, most chocolate sheet cakes call for at least 2 cups. If you add too much flour, your brownies will likely come out too dry and taste stale.

Fudgy brownies are done when they're still slightly jiggly in the center. Pop on a pair of oven mitts and hold both sides of the pan. Gently shake the pan back and forth a few times and look at the middle of the brownies—if you're cooking fudgy brownies, they should wobble or jiggle slightly.

You can speed the cooling process by refrigerating the brownies in the pan, or by freezing them, but we think letting them cool at room temperature will give you the best results.

Set up a website

Creating a website is another great way to promote your brownies because it allows customers to get to know you in depth. Let's face it: social media is filled with short-form content. This is beneficial if people want to know more about you in bite-sized chunks.