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Brownie Challenge

I decided a fun way to start using the recipes from both cook books would be to make the same thing but use the different recipes from each.

I was surprised to see how different they were from each other, one taking much more shortening while the other had much more sugars. And such little chocolate! This was a bit hard being a HUGE chocolate addict to see how little went into each recipe!

So Sunday I decided to put on my apron and do some baking in the afternoon.

First up was my Grammy Pearl's recipe:

I don't have a double broiler but a saucepan with a bit of water in it and a metal bowl above works just fine. I added the 3 squares (Pearl had written above to only use 2 squares, seeing how little chooclate was in the initial recipe I decided to ignore this, sorry Grammy!) along with the shortening and let it melt. Do be careful since steam will be coming out from the edges of your saucepan. I usually wear an oven mitt when holding the bowl as I stir to avoid burning myself.

I beat the eggs then added the sugar as directed finally added my chocolate mixture. In a seperate bowl I sifted the flour and baking powder together and only once... I'm already impatient as it is... Added the rest together.

*Note that there is 1 tsp of vanillain this recipe, the page was torn and not easily read.

I didn't add nuts because I don't like nuts in my dessert, but I did add mini chocolate chips to the top.

After I started my Grandma Ethel's recipe:

As you can see there is less fat in this recipe but so much more sugar! Sugar, honey & corn syrup!

This required no double broiler so I melted my chocoalte (1 square?!) in the microwave. Sifted my dry ingredients as usual and creamed my shortening with the sugar.

Next asked for the honey and corn syrup, I had no corn syrup on hand (can't think if I ever had corn syrup in my cupboards honestly) so I looked up substitutes and came across this recipe:

1/2 cup sugar (I used white, they say if you need dark syrup to use brown sugar)

2 TBSP of warm water

Mix well and use right away. Unfortunately you won't need this much so if you want you can downsize the recipe if you want.

Now as I mixed I already noticed how thicker and heavier this brownie mix was than the other.

I spread into the pan and added chocolate chips on top as well.

So into the oven they both went, same oven temperature being 350.

I checked quite often on Ethel's since it had more sugar and less baking soda thinking it would be quicker to bake and I was right.

I would say I had Ethel's in for about 16-18 minutes and Pearl's I had in for about 22 minutes.

Both came out and tasted completely differrent!

Ethel's almost candied on the bottom leaving it very shiny, they were quite thin and didn't have that "cakey" texture we are so used to these days.

Pearl's were fluffier and I preffered this recipe actually. Would I make either again? That I'm not sure. I love my chocolate A LOT so these didn't fix my chocolate craving I was having sadly.

My husband loved Pearl's and puts squares of them in the microwave for a few seconds and has a glass of milk.