Crispy Chocolate Chip Brownie Brittle – Easy homemade recipe! (2024)

FAQs

Why don t my brownies have a crackly top? ›

Add semisweet chocolate chips

We made several varieties of brownies in my shop and I noticed that the batches that had extra chocolate chips added to the batter always came out shiny! That's when I realized that the extra step of adding chocolate chips to the brownie batter helps the brownies get a crackly top.

Don't worry if it doesn't look crisp when you take it out of the oven, it will crisp up as it cools. If any of the pieces are too thick and chewy you can return them to the oven at 250 degrees for 20 more minutes and then re-cool. Leave it plain or top it with chocolate chips, chopped peanuts or toffee bits.

The thicker the brownie batter, the more resistance it'll offer the chips, and the more likely they are to stay put. Generally speaking, choose a recipe without added water (or coffee) or milk, one that relies solely on eggs and oil or butter for its liquid.

The paper-thin crinkly crust can only form if the sugar in the brownies has fully dissolved and broken down. The best way to achieve this is by making sure you thoroughly beat the sugar and the eggs.

To ensure a crisp edge on each brownie (and to prevent sticking) coat the muffin tin with oil and sugar before adding your batter.

The color and shine are especially noticeable on brownies. “This is a meringue-like crust and is actually caused by a “meringue.” Your beating of the batter after the eggs are added creates it. This seems not to be widely known even among chocolate experts.”

Whether you use butter, margarine, or vegetable oil, putting too much in your brownie batter causes it to be greasy. Don't worry, you're not alone. Many people fall into this trap when trying to substitute butter with oil.

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.

Unbalanced temperature settings make your brownies hard and dry, another undesirable thing. These are just a FEW of the many brownie fails that people face.

Density: Chocolate chips are denser than the batter they are mixed into. As a result, gravity pulls them down through the batter to the bottom of the tin as the bake cooks. This is particularly problematic in recipes with a very wet or thin batter, as there is nothing to 'hold' the chips up.

What can I add to my brownie mix? ›

Scope out your kitchen for add-ins.

Boxed brownies can be their own blank slate for just about any snacks, sweets, or baking scraps you've got in your pantry or fridge. Add a teaspoon of instant coffee or espresso powder. Throw in a handful of nuts—pecans, walnuts, macadamia, whatever you have on hand.

Cooking chocolate tends to have less cocoa butter than eating chocolate, which raises the cooking chocolate's melting temperature and makes it more difficult to melt. However, the chocolate will still melt in the oven. The chocolate chips in your cookies are simply held in shape by the surrounding cookie mixture.

If the brownies still look wet or aren't pulling away, they aren't done. Even fudgy brownies will pull from the edges once they've finished baking. You'll see that the edges look dry while the middle still looks soft or slightly wet. Chewy and cakey brownies will have dry edges with firmer-looking centers.

Alice Medrich, author of Seriously Bitter Sweet: The Ultimate Dessert Maker's Guide to Chocolate, writes that “refrigerating the brownie batter in the pan for several hours, or as long as two days before baking, wreaks enormous transformations: it improves the top gloss and crustiness, and it also blends the flavors so ...

Want to make sure that your brownies are still fudgy but not raw? The truth is, fudgy brownies are slightly undercooked. The key is to make sure the center of the brownies is set and that the toothpick doesn't look too gooey when you remove it from the brownies.

If the brownies still look wet or aren't pulling away, they aren't done. Even fudgy brownies will pull from the edges once they've finished baking. You'll see that the edges look dry while the middle still looks soft or slightly wet. Chewy and cakey brownies will have dry edges with firmer-looking centers.

From the description of the batter, we suspect that the chocolate became slightly overheated as it melted. This causes it to seize, where the solids in the chocolate start to clump together, which will give a thick and probably slightly grainy 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.