How do you know when brownies are done? How long do they take to cool? Knowing the answers will lead to your best-ever batch of homemade brownies.
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If you’ve ever put down the store-bought brownie mix and made brownies from scratch, you know that these chocolatey squares make for a deceptively difficult dessert.
While it’s hard to generalize across the many different types of brownie recipes—especially when you’re comparing a dense, fudgy brownie to a fluffy, cake-like one—steering clear of these brownie baking mistakes is a good start.
If you prefer fudgy brownies, mix until the wet and dry ingredients are just combined. Overmixing allows more air into the batter, which will give you lighter, cake-like brownies instead of dense, rich ones. (On the flip side, if you do want your brownies to be cakey, beat the eggs more.)
To help avoid overmixing, Taste of Home culinary assistant Mark Neufang recommends skipping the electric hand or stand mixer. Instead, he suggests using a whisk to combine the wet ingredients and then a silicone spatula to fold in the flour and other dry ingredients. Mix “just until the flour disappears,” Mark says.
Using a Glass Baking Dish
Glass baking dishes are ideal for casseroles—like these recipes made in vintage Pyrex dishes—but they’re not the best for brownies. The thick glass makes it harder for your brownies to bake, which could leave them gummy and unevenly cooked. A dark pan, on the other hand, absorbs heat faster and can lead to the opposite problem.
To avoid any issues, stick with a light-colored metal pan.
Test Kitchen tip: If you only have dark metal pans, reduce the oven temperature by 25 degrees. Here are more handy secrets to making brownies better from our Test Kitchen.
Generally, bake your brownies for the amount of time specified in the recipe—no longer. If you’re using a toothpick or cake tester to check if your brownies are done, similar to how you’d check a cake for doneness, here’s what to look for:
- For fudgy brownies: Take them out of the oven when the toothpick turns up streaks of batter and a few moist crumbs.
- For cake-like brownies: Bake them until you see just a few moist crumbs.
Brownies keep cooking after you remove them from the oven, so you’ll end up with an overcooked batch if you wait until there are no crumbs at all. Using an oven thermometer can also help you avoid overbaking because it’ll tell you the exact temperature of your oven.
Adding cold eggs to your brownie batter will make the other ingredients firm up, which can be disastrous for your batter. For the ideal batch, bake with room-temperature eggs and butter instead of tossing them into the mix directly from the fridge.
If your recipe calls for combining eggs with melted chocolate, butter and sugar, add the warm chocolate mixture to the eggs a little at a time—otherwise, it could cook the eggs.
Here are other common baking problems to avoid.
Whether you’re reaching for chocolate chips or a chopped chocolate bar, Mark suggests using the highest-quality chocolate you can afford. He likes Ghirardelli bittersweet chocolate chips. If you prefer semisweet, our Test Kitchen found that the best chocolate chips are Nestlé Tollhouse.
Some recipes, like these Ultimate Double Chocolate Brownies, call for cocoa powder instead of melted chocolate. In that case, Mark recommends using Dutch-processed cocoa for a richer flavor.
Test Kitchen tip: Check the ingredient list when you’re buying chocolate chips for baking. Ideally, you want chocolate that has minimal stabilizers and preservatives.
Cutting in Right Away
We know it’s oh-so tempting to dive into a pan of just-cooked brownies. But if you’re looking to cleanly slice your brownies, let them cool for at least 30 minutes before cutting into them. (Here’s how to cut brownies three different ways.)
For super clean-cut brownies, chill them in the refrigerator—or even freeze them overnight—before slicing, Mark says. First, let them cool completely, and then cover the pan with foil or plastic wrap and place it in the fridge or freezer. Check out our full guide to how to freeze brownies if you want to save them for later.
The Biggest Mistakes Everyone Makes When Baking Brownies
Do Brownies harden if cooled?
Your brownies will firm up as they cool but not harden unless you’ve chilled them in the fridge or the freezer. The texture of your brownies should be at its best at room temperature – fudgy, firm, and melts in your mouth. The low temperature in the fridge, however, will solidify the butter and chocolate in your brownie, making it hard.
Do Brownies need to be cooled?
If you are using buttercream frosting, the heat from the brownie will lead to your buttercream melting or splitting, hence why a chilled or completely cooled brownie is preferred. How to Cool Brownies Fast? If the 30+ minutes wait is simply too long for you, try this method to cool it down more quickly.
How long do Brownies take to cool?
Step 3: Once you remove the foods on one shelf of the refrigerator, place the brownies on the shelf. Keep them uncovered and on the wire cooling rack. Step 4: Using this refrigerator cooling method takes under an hour, or about 45 minutes overall. If you want chewier brownies, step up the time to 60 minutes.
Do Brownies need to be refrigerated?
The texture of your brownies should be at its best at room temperature – fudgy, firm, and melts in your mouth. The low temperature in the fridge, however, will solidify the butter and chocolate in your brownie, making it hard. Can you let brownies cool overnight? You can let your brownies cool overnight.