mmmmh Chocolate Brownies! Episode 3.1

I was lucky enough to receive a laser thermometer for Christmas, and decided to do some baking experiments with it. The recipe I chose to experiment with is Chocolate Brownies, a treat for afternoon tea and handy for school lunchboxes as well.

The experiments used both a silicon baking tray and a metal baking tray. Three batches of gluten free chocolate brownies were made, and the differences in the results were quite remarkable. It just goes to show, that you need to be familiar with your oven and equipment. Trial and error does work.

Trial 1: Using a silicon tray and 2/3 of the recipe, the tray was cooled for 30 minutes before turning out of the tin. It stuck!

Trial 2: Using a metal tray lined with baking paper and the full recipe. The tray was cooled for 30 minutes before turning out of the tin. It did not stick, but broke up when lifted out.

Trial 3: Using a metal tray lined with baking paper and the full recipe. The tray was cooled for 1.5 hours before turning out of the tin. When it originally came out of the oven, the brownie was 114°C. After 30 minutes it had dropped to 40°C. At an hour out of the oven it was 30°C, and after the 1.5 hour mark it had cooled to room temperature (24°C). Lifting it out now, and cutting into squares was successful.

This was a valuable lesson in gluten free baking. I always "knew" that I needed to let baked goods cool in the tray, but had sometimes cheated and rushed to get them out and onto a cooling rack. This has often led to items crumbling and I was never sure why. So now I know!

So here is the link to my YouTube video, and the full recipe below

Chocolate Brownies
105g butter
150g dark chocolate
255g castor sugar
3 eggs, lightly beaten
105g rice flour
1 1/2tsp baking powder
1/4tsp salt
3/4tsp vanilla essence

105g macadamia nuts chopped

Preheat oven to 160°Cfan/180 °C.

Line a 28cm square tin with baking paper

Melt the butter and chocolate together in a double boiler over a low heat, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat and add the sugar. Allow to cool.
Add the eggs. Mix well.
Sift in the flour, baking powder and salt. Mix well.
Fold in the vanilla and nuts.
Pour the mixture into the baking tin and bake for 35 minutes.
Cool completely in the tin.
Cut into squares to serve

updated April 2023