I've always been more of a cookie person, but a good brownie brings a different sort of joy. Part of what makes that for me is an intense chocolatiness, an unapologetic singlemindedness that elevates it beyond simplicity and into sharp focus. There are several ways to bring that notion to fruition, but getting the best result is rather more difficult, and I often combine several flavor force multipliers to get what I want.
A trick I like is using things that don't readily go stale. On top of how flavors change with moisture levels, it's a question of time. Bit of a bother to bake a batch of brownies and then have a day or two to eat them all before they brick up and get thrown away. (I like being the same size and shape I've been in since high school, thank you.)
One of my favorite niche (well, niche when I started using it) recipe concepts that does this is Claire Ptak's, from her Violet Bakery (now Violet Cakes in London). In addition to using almost no liquid beyond egg, it uses rye flour instead of wheat, which gives a subtle but robust depth of flavor while removing the majority of gluten (rye has about half as much by weight as wheat does, if memory serves) and resulting in a fudgier finished product.
Another one that's been more popular in recent years has been the use of glutinous rice flour. No, there's no gluten in it, that's just the name. Used primarily for making things like mochi in the past, it's had a moment or two in desserts of varying varieties. The briefly popular and timelessly delicious Hawaiian Butter Mochi is probably the best known among them, but if you add some cocoa powder and chocolate, that's a damn fine baseline for a brownie too.
So that's what I'm here to give you. Chocolate Mochi Brownies. Cut them small, because they're deep, dark, and rich. You want about five incredible bites with a nice cup of something hot, or maybe a glass of milk.
Equipment:
Kitchen Scale, Large Bowl, Immersion Blender/Food Processor, Sifter/Fine Strainer, Silicone Spatula, Medium Pot (~3qt), Measuring Spoons, Parchment Paper, 9x13 Baking Pan (or an 8x8 for a half batch)
Ingredients:
1# / 454g Glutinous Rice Flour
80g Cocoa Powder (sift this into the flour, it's extremely prone to clumping)
1 Tbsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Salt
150g Butter, melted (plus more for the pan)
800ml Whole Milk
500g Dark Chocolate couverture (at least 50%), chopped finely
300g Granulated Sugar
2 Tbsp Instant Coffee Granules
100ml Kahlua
4 Large Eggs, room temp, beaten
4 tsp Vanilla Extract
Instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 350F/170C.
- Butter your pan of choice, then additionally butter a piece of parchment paper and line the baking pan with it. (If using an 8x8 for a half batch, I recommend a springform.)
- In the Medium Pot, warm the milk and butter on low heat till the butter is melted.
- Dissolve the Sugar and Instant Coffee in it, stirring gently on very low heat.
- Melt in the chopped Dark Chocolate.
- Once the chocolate is mostly melted, remove from heat and stir till fully melted.
- Add the Kahlua.
- In the Large Bowl, weigh out the Glutinous Rice Flour, Cocoa Powder, Baking Powder, and Salt.
- Add the Eggs and the Vanilla to the milk mixture.
- Combine all ingredients together in the Large Bowl.
- Blend/process for 20-30 seconds till fully incorporated and smooth. It will be an extremely loose liquid. Do not worry, that's what it's supposed to be like.
- Pour into parchment-lined pan and bake at 350F/170C for 32-38 minutes.
- After removing from the oven, allow to rest for 5 minutes in the pan before removing to cool more thoroughly.
The coffee flavor of the Kahlua is meant to bolster the chocolate's intensity, but if you want to tinker, swapping in Disaronno (for almond) or Chambord (for raspberry) both work quite nicely. All three of those liqueurs are quite sweet, and the alcohol bakes off with no fuss. In fact, it results in a slightly better rise because alcohol evaporates faster than water, so you get a two stage lift. (This is also why people use vodka in pie dough, for the record)
Another good thing about this is that you only really need an immersion blender or food processor to make this- you can just dump all this together, blend it smooth, then pour it in a pan and bake it off. I strongly recommend using Superfine Sugar instead of regular Granulated if you decide to do it that way though, it's prone to developing a somewhat gritty feel if you don't.
Despite having a surprising amount of water-based liquids in this recipe, these have kept just fine in my fridge for a week and a day so far. I also topped them with a fairly basic cream cheese frosting to compensate for the one odd bit- the top of these can get a thin layer of dryness, so I recommend things like ganache, a thick buttercream or other frosting.
