Whenever I typed that title, it made me giggle a little bit. Why, you ask? Well, because my not so guilty secret is that I'm a total Monty Python nerd. Which means that the word Quest makes me sing "The Knights of the Round Table" and start quoting random parts of the movie to myself. My nerdiness knows no bounds.
While "Spam-a-lot" has absolutely nothing to do with brownies, I am, never the less, on a quest for the perfect brownie. It's so weird, because you'd think that there's no such thing as a bad brownie, but I am here to tell you that you'd be thinking wrong. I've had over baked things that pretended to be brownies. I've had brown squares that should have had at least SOME chocolate flavor but didn't. That is the worst! So if a girl wants a yummy little square of chocolate heaven, she's gonna have to figure it out for herself...and then share it with you to save you the pain I've been through!
Now, this should all be simple, right. Load up on ingredients, try every "Best Brownie Evah" on Pinterest and all will be chocolate bliss. I wish! Ivy and I exist at altitude, so many a fallen brownie came out of my oven. Delicious, but not what I was looking for. And for the record, sometimes Pinterest lies. There...I said it. One final factor in my Quest For The Perfect Brownie is that my son (Ivy's little brother) only likes cakey brownies and I love a crinkly topped fudgy brownie. What to do?
Since I believe there can never be too much chocolate in my life, the answer is make them both! For cakey brownies, I think the winner winner chicken dinner (wait, we're still talking about brownies, right) is King Arthur Flour's cakey brownie recipe. My son agrees and he can devour them at a break neck pace. That's probably equal parts him loving them and that he's a 16 year old boy who can eat his way through the pantry in an hour if I'd let him.
For Ivy and I, the clear winner was much harder to find. We both love some serious chocolate flavor and that means cocoa powder and real chocolate need to be part of the equation. We also love the way coffee enhances the flavor of chocolate so some espresso powder is a must! Remember my story about fallen brownies? Turns out, at altitude the only levening you need is eggs. So I've started leaving out baking powder from every recipe I try. I also LOVE a crackly crust on top and there are a bazillion tips and tricks for getting one. Is it air in the egg and sugar mixing stage? Is it banging the pan on the counter halfway through baking? Yes. No. Maybe? I've tried it all and it does seem that really beating the eggs and sugar for some serious air bubbles helps.
Ultimately, I settled on this recipe from Mike Bakes New York with some tweaks. They're fudgy, chocolaty and beautiful and I can't eat just one. Are they the Holy Grail of Brownies? I dunno. I think I'll keep trying, tweaking and eating new variations. As long as no snarky French Knights try to steer me wrong, the quest continues!
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