Brownies: Butter vs. Margarine 6214

No, never underbaked. Just...not fluffy. Dense. Not quite as dense as flourless chocolate cake, but approaching that. Actually, the standard Betty Crocker brownie mix makes a good texture for brownies (when baked until the toothpick comes out with fudgey crumbs, but not wet, as your recipe states), but the chocolate flavor is lacking, to me, compared to home-made. Hence, my quest to melt chocoloate and butter for brownies.

The perfect brownie to me has a top crust that is lighter in color than inside, and it sort of flakes off when you bite into it-your tooth sinks into deep brown, sticky but structured mbutt of cookie-cake-chewy goodness. And it's chewy. Not like a hard caramel or like stale fudge--but like---hmmm let me think....like....there's nothing I can think of that's like that texture.

The only way I think you can understand is to make your recipe--one batch with baking powder and one without. Of course, bake them for exactly the same amount of time, in exactly the same spot in the oven. Then when cool, put them side by side and see and taste the difference.

The only change I made to your recipe ever (before the margarine-butter thing the other day) was to eliminate the leavening. So side by side, one would be cakey (like yours) and one pan would be chewy (Like mine).

I know what you mean about icky and underbaked. I hate chocolate chip cookies that are "soft and moist", also oatmeal cookies. They just taste underbaked to me. Cookies should bend, then break. Or just break with hard crumbs. But never should a cookie break with soft crumbs, if it does, it's underbaked.

then Tammy

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