We love the glossy wafer-thin top crust that sometimes appears on brownies almost as much as we love the fudgy layer underneath. We always thought this was phenomenon was random or particular to specific recipes, but then we discovered that there's a way we can get it all the time! Here's how:
We consulted one of our favorite cookbooks, BakeWise, and found that this crispy top crust is actually a layer of meringue. That's right - whipped egg whites and sugar! It happens in recipes where the the butter and sugar are creamed together and then the eggs are added. The more the mixture is beaten once the eggs are added, the more prominent this crust.
If you're like us and you love the crispy top, just beat the batter as much as possible after adding the eggs and before adding any other ingredients. We tried this by hand using a whisk in with our recent batch of Hershey's Ultimate Chocolate Brownies and got a decent, though fairly thick crust. We expect that we'd get an even more impressive crust if we used a standing or hand mixer instead.
This recipe from Martha Stewart has you beat the eggs and sugar for a full 10 minutes!
• Chocolate Brownies from Martha Stewart
Conversely, if you're not a fan of crusts, just mix the batter as little as possible once you add the eggs. You might even whisk the eggs before adding them to the batter so they'll blend in more quickly and smoothly.
This method also works for cookies and cakes. Now that we know the secret, we're excited to experiment with all our baking!
What do you think: crispy crust, yay or nay?
Related: Five Ways to Eat Dark Chocolate
(Image: Martha Stewart)
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yay for crispy crust!
Shirley Corriher, author of Bakewise & Cookwise, is a genius! (I'm at a luncheon/class with her this week and can't wait.)
Alice Medrich has a big section in her book Bittersweet about the science of brownies. According to her it's not just about whipping the eggs:
"Cocoa brownies have the softest center and chewiest candylike top "crust" of all because all of the fat in the recipe (except for a small amount of cocoa butter in the cocoa) is butter, and all of the sugar is granulated sugar rather than the finely milled sugar used in chocolate."
So, brownies made with a large proportion of melted chocolate instead of cocoa/butter/granulated sugar don't get as good of a top crust.
Plus, if you refrigerate the pan of brownie batter overnight you get an even better crust.
I get a great crust on my brownies with melted chocolate. I use the recipe on the back of the Baker's Chocolate box. I'm a huge proponent of this recipe. It has 3 eggs, maybe that makes the difference.
Huh. Neat! I always assumed it was from a high percentage of sugar.
In culinary school, we often made these ridiculous brownies that were dense underneath and had the best crispy top, nice and thick but still very crisp. You'd occasionally get tunnels underneath the top crust, so it would crumble off as you cut them. Naturally, you had to eat those, as it would be criminal to throw them out. Even when frosted with ganache, the crust would remain underneath for days.
ABreadADay.com
eprewitt, can you post that recipe?!
yay! always thought crispy crusts were for angel ppl with hotline to God :-)
yes, please post that recipe ?