Anyone got any tips for really dry, hard brownies? Either tips to salvage the brownies to make them fit to serve , or if there can be no redemption then what about ways to recycle what remains of the brownies into a different dessert so that they don't totally go to waste?
I tried Gemma Stafford's 3 ingredient nutella brownie recipe, and it really turned out awful for me. I'm trying to see what went wrong. This is the cook who I followed.
https://www.biggerbolderbaking.com/3-ingredient-nutella-recipes/
The recipe called for a cup of nutella. I put in a cup of Nutiva, which is an alternative to Nutella for lactose intolerant and vegans. It's the same consistency as nutella, and has all the key ingredients of sugar, hazelnut, cocoa, vanilla, palm oil, just instead of dairy milk I believe it uses coconut milk.
The next ingredient was the chef's choice of either 2 eggs or 1/2 cup of mashed banana or 1/4 cup of apple sauce/ silken tofu or buttermilk. I chose the apple sauce of the options she gave, and it seemed to blend nicely.
Last ingredient called for was 10 tablespoons of flour. This gave me a little pause because it looked like too much flour in proportion to the rest of ingredients when it hit the bowl, and sometimes over packing the recipe with flour will result in dryness. However as I stirred it together a bit more it looked like it was ultimately coming together nicely, and I thought it would be okay.
I was a little surprised that there was no call for butter or cooking oil in this recipe, but that was also the appeal of why I wanted to try it because it had so few ingredients, and I didn't want to alter a recipe significantly that I had never tried and throw everything out of balance--though I seemed to have done that somehow anyway accidentally. Since chocolate spreads are oil-based I figured the oil the palm oil from the Nutiva/Nutella was going to act as the baking agent in this case, so I didn't add anything like coconut oil and just tried to follow the recipe.
She mentioned if desired you could add other things like nuts or candy to the brownies, and I put in a few chocolate chips and walnuts, and thought we were good to go.
I cooked it for the suggested time of 20-25 minutes in the oven on baking parchment in a pan, but it went downhill from there. When I tasted a brownie it was oddly not sweet at all. It was close to bitter. I feel like this recipe needed sugar, but I didn't add any because it wasn't mentioned, besides Nutella/nutiva has some sugar in it, as did the chocolate chips I added. This however was a very unsweet brownie, and it was also really dry oddly. This is curious because this was supposed to be a recipe for a gooey-centered brownie.
I have heard that sometimes with brownies, especially gooey ones they can turn out hard and dry if the pan is too big or and the dough doesn't fill it properly. When I poured the batter into the cooking pan I did think it looked a little flat. The recipe said it would make 12 brownies, but even with the amount of flour recommended it looked as though it was spread thin. However, I proceeded, convincing myself that it would rise as it baked.
Anyway what I ended up with was really dry, unsweetened, tough brownies that just aren't good at all. I'm trying to retrace my steps and find the culprit so I don't make the same mistake again. I'm inclined to think I needed more sugar and oil. I have also considered that I just overcooked them. I used the baking time recommend, but every oven is different, so maybe I should have shortened the time span. Maybe it was the nutiva? I just don't know.
Oddly the brownies don't look that bad in the picture, but the taste isn't there this time, and I want to do better.
What do you guys think the problem was? Also any hacks to save this mess? Or if not, what about ways to cut my losses and make lemonade out of the lemons I have been handed by trying a new recipe that incorporates bits of the unused brownie?
