I had been incredibly disappointed in how my Black and Tan Brownies had turned out, but I figured that it was probably a flaw in my methods - namely, that I had forgotten to add sugar to the chocolate batter and tried to fix it by training batter back from the pan into the bowl to add it in.
It was Monday again, and since I don't have time to cook dinner on Mondays, I bake - and figured that I might as well try the Black and Tan Brownies again since I had the Guinness. I followed the instructions, added the sugar to the melted butter and chocolate as it said. So far so good. Then I added the eggs, vanilla, and Guinness in one swoop, like it said to. And, I whisked for 4 minutes trying to incorporate the chocolate and liquid, and still had little success with fixing those clumps of chocolate. It was time to take the butterscotch brownies out, so I baked them an extra minute while I quickly added flour to the chocolate, which helped to smooth out the chocolate lumps. I can't remember right now how long the butterscotch layer was out before I got the chocolate batter on and put the pan back in the oven. But quite honestly, if a recipe is so finicky that I have to do a step immediately, it needs to say so.
I baked them until the toothpick came out slightly sticky, as it said it should, but the bottom layer was still gooey and not sticking to the chocolate layer. I wish I had baked them until the toothpick was completely dry, but I'm not sure that would have saved them.
I took some to work today, and people either liked them (because of dark chocolate) or hated them (because of dark chocolate). I didn't like the texture of the chocolate brownie very much - it seemed a little too fudgy/dense, whereas I prefer my brownies to be creamy and have a crumb (if that makes sense). The best ones were along the edge, where the butterscotch layer had baked more thoroughly and the chocolate layer was thinner.
Overall, I'm pretty disappointed. I threw out what wasn't eaten at work because I know I'm not going to eat them. I didn't like making this recipe, because the chocolate brownie layer was so fussy. Maybe it would work better with a cocoa substitution for the chocolate. I really thought that baking these again would fix my problems with them, but I suppose that I still tried to follow the recipe too closely and it simply doesn't work. I'm still going to keep my eye out for another two-toned brownie, but I don't think I'll try another one soon.
Alex says
I liked the cupcakes you'll talk about later!