By Myah Hesselgesser, Staff Writer
Do you love brownies, but don’t have the time or energy to put all the effort into making homemade brownies? Well, I have scoured the internet for the best brownie hacks to make your brownie rival those made from scratch. So, without further ado, here is a list of ways you can help to improve your boxed brownies to make them taste more homemade.
One way to make your brownies taste as good as your grandmother’s is to use melted butter instead of oil. Most brownie mixes call for oil,but using melted butter adds a fudgier texture and enhances the cocoa flavor of a brownie that everybody craves.
The next tip that can help your brownies rival those from scratch is by using egg yolks instead of whole eggs, like most mixes call for. The egg yolks add more fat content to the brownie, making the texture fudgier. As a rule of thumb, two egg yolks equals a whole egg.
The third tip to help improve your boxed brownies is to use milk (or heavy cream) instead of water, like some boxed mixes call for. The milk adds depth, richness, and extra fat for a better textured brownie than water does. The milk contains more fat that helps increase the quality of your brownies that will have everyone coming back for seconds.
Here’s a tip for all my lactose intolerant people out there; if you don’t have milk or can’t have it but you still want to enhance that depth to your brownie, you can use hot coffee instead of water. One commonly known baking fact is that adding coffee to a chocolatey treat will help to intensify that chocolate flavor that is a staple for a good brownie.
If you love your milk and still want that intense chocolate flavor, you could add one to two teaspoons of espresso powder or instant coffee. I know that not everyone has espresso powder or instant coffee just lying around in their house, so I did a little digging and found that if you ground up coffee grounds into a really fine powder, using a food processor or a blender will do, you can use this instead. But a word of caution if you are using coffee grounds–their flavor is much more intense, so use half of what you would use with espresso powder or instant coffee, which is half a teaspoon to one teaspoon.
This one might sound a little weird to some people, but adding in half a teaspoon of vanilla extract to your brownie mix will help to add some extra depth and bring an even more intense chocolate flavor to your brownie.
All the intense chocolate flavors might be too much for some people, so adding a pinch of salt to your brownie mix and some on top will help to balance the brownie out so that it’s not overly powerful. Baking is all about balance, and this will help bring that balance of sweet and salty.
Over-mixing is a common enemy in the kitchen when baking, and it will try to sneak in and destroy the texture of your brownies. So, to avoid over mixing, mix until you see no more pockets of dry mixture and then immediately transfer the batter into a GREASED baking pan.
When baking your brownies, you want a low heat but longer baking time. After doing some research, I found that baking your brownies at 325 for 40 minutes worked well, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the brownie comes out with a few crumbs. You do not want the toothpick to come out clean because you want that fudgy texture of a warm homemade brownie, not the texture of a rock.
Finally, if you like flavor pairings you can add peanut butter or nutella and swirl it into the batter before baking it. Also, feel free to add anything you want into your batter and be creative, chocolate chips, coconut, peanuts, ect. If you are feeling extra adventurous, you can add toppings, frosting for a more festive look, chocolate ganache and berries, ice cream; go wild with all the possibilities.
I have used all of these hacks multiple times because I am a brownie lover, and they turn out wonderful each time. I find that using all of these hacks while baking your brownies will give you an unforgettable brownie experience that will have people asking you for more.