Well, ‘chef’ insofar as puttering around my own kitchen goes.
I’ve made batches of chocolate cakes, brownies, bread puddings and custards over the last month or so. From scratch, of course. Some of it turned out really well. Some of it.
My cakes are consistently great. Gooey and rich. My bread puddings are pretty fine too. Very melt in your mouth. The problems arise with the custard and the brownies.
My brownies are dry as dust. Absolutely hideous. I felt like I was mining rock as I bit into them. Despicable, ungodly, unbrownie brownies. Worst thing is, I followed a colleagues recipe to the T and her batches are usually perfect. So, Question 1, How do I make brownies rich and moist and luscious? What’s your secret ingredient? What’re the baking time and temperature that work for you?
Next, the custards. They taste terrific. Very coffee-ish or banana-ish or whatever-ish, and not too eggy. Really good. BUT I CAN’T GET THEM OUT OF THE DAMN MOULDS! They just stick there even after having hung upside down overnight! Gravity, you lazy bum, do your job! I’ve been using these non-stick cupcake moulds to make serving size portions, and the silly custards refuse to slide out cleanly. So, Question 2, How does one extricate a custard from it’s baking mould? My recipe, by the way, is as follows:
Coffee Custard (12 cupcake-sized portions)
2 cups milk
2 tbsp instant or ground coffee
3 eggs
1/3 cup sugar
pinch of salt
vanilla to taste (1/2 tsp if it’s the good stuff)
*Scald the milk with coffee and strain if you used grounds.
*Beat eggs slightly. Add the sugar, salt, vanilla.
*Fold in the milk a little at a time. Careful not to overbeat else the finished custard will have ugly little airholes in it.
*Bake in a water bath at a low oven temperature till a knife inserted in the centre comes out clean.
Lots of fat. A little milk if the batter seems too thick. I prefer to use vegetable shortening (Crisco) in my brownies because butter is damned expensive. You probably want to look for a recipe for fudgy brownies versus cakey brownies. Fudgy brownies are thicker and denser (like fudge–big surprise, eh?) and cakey brownies are like (gasp!) cake. Store-bought brownies are usually of the fudgy variety, and they get that way because enormous amounts of vegetable oil are used to make them.
Baking time and temperature depend on the recipe, since all brownie recipes are not equal. Do you know if your oven’s temperature is accurate? it might be baking at a much higher temp than it’s telling you. You could buy an oven thermometer and check it out. If you’re not inclined to do that, then you could keep a very close eye on the brownies for the last ten minutes of the suggested baking time, and as soon as a toothpick or knife inserted in the center comes out clean, whisk those puppies out of the oven. If they’re still dry and it’s not from overbaking, then there’s something off in the recipe.
So, in summation, you either need to use more fat or keep a closer eye on your brownies towards the end of the baking time. And/or check the temp of your oven.
I don’t have any experience with custards, sorry. If I were you, I’d probably just say screw it to the cupcake tin and buy some custard ramekins. Or constantly make them like flan and coat the insides of the cups with caramel sauce. Or grease the cups.
Seems slightly overcooked. Custards will continue cooking after they have been removed from the oven so you want them slightly jiggly. For clean release, lightly butter the bottom and sides of your ramekin, cut a piece of greaseproof paper in the shape of the bottom of your ramekin and put it on. After you’ve removed it and let it cool, insert a paring knife into the edge of the ramekin and rotate the ramekin until the knife has cut all around the edge, then drop onto a plate and remove the greaseproof paper.
Another solution would be to cook your custard in whatever you are going to serve it in (individual bowls, or larger ramekins)anything you can put into the water bath.
I’m going to agree on the know thine oven temp thing for the brownies. They sound like they’re baking too much, too fast. I suspect I pull my brownies earlier than I would a cake in terms of signs and signals of being cooked, too, if that makes sense - you obviously know how to tell when your cakes are done. (I haven’t baked a cake in ages, brownies get much more mileage around this house… but I stand by that vague assertion.)
Things may have changed, but when my mother had problems with her oven’s thermostat–problems where it was heating erratically regardless of the temperature she set it at, and called a repairman, she was told that it would cost at least half the cost of a new stove–and there would be no guarentee that it would be effective.
Probably not, but most ovens are consistently off. If it’s usually 25 degrees high, set it for 25 degrees lower.
For the brownies, it may be overmixing or overbaking. Stop mixing when it just barely comes together - pancakes are the same way. Brownies should come out of the oven when they look not quite done, then finish cooking on the counter. It’s tricky because what works for cakes is overdone for brownies. I like a glass pan because I can look at the bottom and see if it’s done.
I have a very good recipe for very dense, very chocolaty brownies. First, the recipe as written, then my notes/modifications:
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate
10 tablespoons butter
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1-3/4 cups granulated sugar,
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
Preheat oven to 350. Butter bottom of 8x8 metal pan.
Melt chocolate and butter together. [I do it in the microwave rather than on the stove].
Whisk eggs and vanilla together.
Add melted chocolate/butter mixture to the eggs and whisk to combine.
Whisk dry ingredients together.
Add dry ingredients to mixture and stir to combine. [It will be very thick].
Spread batter into the pan. Bake for 50-60 minutes, turning halfway through, until test comes out clean.
Notes:
Make sure butter and eggs are at room temperature.
Use high quality chocolate. I’m a Callebaut fan, myself.
I use a high-fat content butter for my baking; it makes a difference in richness.
I find the 10 tablespoons of butter just a bit too much since I butter the bottom of my pan rather than using parchment paper, so I reduce it to 9 tablespoons.
If I’m really in the mood for chocolate, I’ll add 1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chunks, stirred in at the very end. The original recipe called for 1 cup of walnuts, but I hate nuts in brownies.
I tend to bake toward the longer end of the range which makes the brownies chewier.
I generally make a double batch in a 9x13 pan and get 32 brownies.
These are very heavy and dense, so cut 'em small.
My oven is pretty consistently about 25 degrees over the setting in the baking range, so by default I set the oven lower. It’s always good to have an over thermometer to double check.