Malted "Forever" Brownies

 I've been thinking quite a lot about how I'm approaching this goal of mine. Over the course of the past week or so, I've been slightly overcommitted to making as many recipes as fast as I can, and while this approach might be helpful to an extent, I'm also worried it will take the joy out of this project for me and deprive me of the chance to really give each recipe their time to soak in for me. However, I also have realized that there will inevitably be recipes that I'm more excited about than others, and I can't really do anything to change that. Don't worry, I'm still committing myself to making every recipe within the two books, but what I'm saying is that I don't need to pressure myself to have the same strategy for every recipe. I've also been making TikToks documenting the recipe-making process, and while it's fun to share, and it definitely gives me an audience that I don't really have just blogging (yet!), it's a little exhausting to have to think about filming every step as I'm making a recipe for the first time. I kind of miss being able to really just focus on the recipe rather than content creating. I think I'll keep the videos coming, but they won't be for every recipe I make. Maybe I'll only film things once I've made a recipe several times and gotten the hang of it (of course, that won't happen for every recipe in this project, lol). And I'll definitely change up the style of the videos - I'll try to research more into lighting and angles, and probably change the style of music I use. Also, I might do away with voiceovers - they're a little cringy in retrospect.

I'm also still not really sure about the writing direction I want this blog to go in. I feel like several of my last posts were a very simple, straight-to-the-point review of the recipes and detailing of the process. However, for my review of Claire's Mondel Bread recipe I went a lot deeper and sort of tried to tie the significance of that recipe (even though I didn't really like it that much) into the experiences I have with my family. I honestly really like the idea of making these posts more narrative-based and using these recipes as a vehicle to share certain perspectives about my life. I get that it might not be as useful for others who just want another amateur baker's perspective on Claire's recipes before they bake them themselves, but this is my blog, and I can do whatever the hell I want. Seriously, I've said from the beginning that I don't care whether or not anybody actually reads my posts; the only person I'm doing this project for is myself.

During these early stages of the project, I think it's best to keep doing what I'm doing and focus my attention on the simpler, more casual recipes that don't require a ton of specialty ingredients and equipment. Next in line were the Malted "Forever" Brownies from Dessert Person. The brownie is, in my mind, one of the most quintessential, classic, and beloved American home desserts, perhaps second only to the chocolate chip cookie. This, of course, means that there are probably millions of brownie recipes out there, and that everyone has an entirely different idea of what the ideal brownie should be, so I'm always a little skeptical at recipes claiming to produce the "best" version of one. I am of the opinion that a brownie should be very dense, fudgy, and chocolaty but have a nice chew factor as well, and should definitely not be cakey, because then it would just be chocolate cake. Claire calls these her "forever" brownies because after developing this recipe, she doesn't think she'll need another brownie recipe again. That's a pretty bold claim. But whether or not this recipe would be my forever brownie, it's still a brownie, and that meant it would be pretty good regardless. It's like what people say about pizza, but I have had pizza that was pretty bad, so I don't really believe that. I believe that of brownies, though.

This isn't a particularly unusual brownie recipe, with the exception of the addition of malted milk powder. There are no nuts included, but Claire does provide a variation for adding nuts if you choose to go that route. Chocolate makes an appearance in three forms: there's cocoa powder, which gets "bloomed" in boiling water to bring out its flavor before being combined into the batter. I've never heard of this technique before, and while I'm not very good with wrapping my head around sciency things, it's definitely a useful tip to know about. There's also semisweet chocolate, which gets melted double-boiler style along with the fat in the recipe (butter and neutral oil). Finally, there's chopped milk chocolate which gets mixed into the batter and creates nice little pockets of chocolate in the final product. Interestingly, I noticed there are no leavening agents in this recipe. Upon researching I found that this was typical, although not universal, of brownies. It makes sense - you don't really want brownies to rise and create a light crumb but rather remain dense and fudgy while baking. I can't remember whether or not I've used leavening agents in past brownie recipes I've made - before this project, I never really paid close attention to the exact ingredients or techniques in recipes I was making.

After baking, Claire instructs you to chill the brownies for an hour, which supposedly results in a chewier texture. I didn't compare the before and after of chilling, but I suspect it's a key step. Okay, slight rant: I feel like it's a general perception, especially among people who either don't bake themselves or bake very occasionally, that everything tastes best warm and straight out of the oven. There are definitely instances where this is true, but I generally find that baked goods really need time to rest and cool properly - not only does that help develop a stable structure and texture, but I think you can taste the flavors a little more intensely at room temperature. That's just a theory, though. I have never been able to reach this stage when making brownies; after ten minutes at most, someone in my family (usually my mom, no shade to Pam) will inevitably ask, "Are the brownies ready?!" and then get visibly annoyed when I say no, they still need to cool a little longer, so I eventually just say fuck it and let them dig in at their own discretion. At that stage it is usually more of a greasy chocolate soup than a brownie.

I said earlier that I am slightly wary of making definitive claims regarding something as universal as a brownie. So I'm not going to say that this was definitely the best brownie I've ever had, but, well, there's a good chance it just might have been. This brownie was the perfect balance of soft and fudgy with a slight amount of bite and chew that, in my opinion, is the perfect texture for a brownie. I really suspect the chilling helped a lot with that. I've always thought I was solidly a nuts-in-brownies person, but I didn't really miss them in this recipe. This brownie tasted like a simple, pure celebration of the flavor of chocolate. I really liked the addition of the milk chocolate chunks, which surprisingly remained solid through baking. It's not an addition I would've usually gravitated toward, but I found that it was a really nice sweet contrast to the dark chocolate in the brownie itself. My only criticism is that the addition of malted milk powder felt a little superfluous. I suspect it's a very nuanced addition to the brownie that you could probably detect if you were given a side-by-side taste test, but I don't think you have to put it in. To be fair, Claire lists it as optional, but I mean, it's in the title of the recipe, so that means it's kind of not. I think it's just a twist she added to differentiate her brownie from everyone else's (no shade to Claire; if you're reading this, which you probably aren't and never will, I love you).

I also think I'm going to introduce another litmus test to these recipes - the "will I make again" test. I find that it's the question I ask myself the most when rating these recipes on a scale of one to ten, and I think it does a better job telling me how I really feel about these recipes. A recipe can be objectively very delicious, but if I don't find myself making it another time, it tells me I don't really have any strong feelings towards it, and that's important information.

verdict: 9/10

will I make again: yes! i'll try out other brownie recipes just to see what's out there, but until I find a brownie I like more, this is the one.

I decided to keep half of the brownies for myself to snack on during the course of the week, and the other half to freeze for later. Maybe I'll take them to my family, or share them with friends, or whatever, but I'm proud of myself for doing that. To be honest, I've been a little nervous lately that making all these desserts is going to have a negative impact on my health. Since I quit my job, I've been trying really hard to focus on eating intuitively, but I still find that it's difficult. Instead, I'm still carrying the habit of weighing myself nearly every time before I eat something, and if I'm below a certain weight, I can justify myself eating regardless of whether I'm hungry or not. I feel like I've failed a little in that respect. I made a promise to myself that if I quit work, there would be a handful of things I needed to focus on and commit myself to, and I've only partially followed up with that commitment. However, I also need to learn not to be too hard on myself. I know that I'm growing mentally, and there doesn't have to be a straight line from A to B for me to make progress.