One of my favorite Pampered Chef products is their Batter Bowl. I am in no way affiliated with the company, but over the years have attended a lot of Pampered Chef parties. The Batter Bowl was one of my first purchases, and brownies were the first things I made.
There are other microwave-safe mixing bowls out there, but the Batter Bowl has served me well over the years. I love its durability, how easy it is to wash, and how it goes right in the microwave. This makes it especially useful for melting chocolate for brownies. For this recipe, which is originally from Alice Medrich, you just put butter in the bowl and microwave it for 1 minute to melt the butter. To get shiny brownies you add the sugar to the bowl and microwave it too. From that point everything is just stirred together in the bowl.
The kind of cocoa you use will also affect the flavor and texture. The ones in the photo above were made with a darker Dutch process cocoa, but natural cocoa powder also works well and gives you lighter colored brownies. I'd also classify these as fudgy brownies. They're kind of chewy, but if you want an even chewier one bowl brownie I'd suggest going with One Bowl Cocoa Brownies.
Recipe
Pampered Chef Batter Bowl Brownies
Ingredients
- 10 tablespoons unsalted butter (140 grams)
- 1 ¼ cups granulated sugar (250 grams)
- ¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder (70 grams)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 large eggs cold and straight from the refrigerator
- ½ cup all-purpose flour (70 grams)
- ½ cup walnuts
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease an 8-inch square metal or glass pan and line with parchment.
- Cut the butter into chunks, put it in the batter bowl and heat for 1 minute. Stir, then repeat heating at 30 second intervals until butter is completely melted. Add sugar to hot butter and stir well, then stir in cocoa. Heat for another minute, stirring ever 30 seconds, so that the batter is very warm.
- Stir in the vanilla extract and the salt. Make sure the batter is warm rather than piping hot, then add the cold eggs, one at a time, beating after each egg is added. Add the flour and stir until it is fully blended, then beat for about 40 strokes (I do this with another Pampered Chef item, my beloved Spatula Scraper).
- Spread batter in the pan and bake for 25 to 28 minutes. A glass pan might take up to 28 minutes, while a metal pan might take 25. When done, the batter will still look extremely fudge-y. The toothpick test is useless here, but if you have a meat thermometer you can stick it in and check for a temp above 190F.
- Allow the brownies to cool for several hours, then loosen slightly from edges of pan. If you have time, I recommend giving them a good chill before slicing.
Sonya says
Cool!!