Published March 1, 2004.
When developing an old-fashioned, chewy chocolate brownie recipe, we found that success lay in the details. Substituting cake flour for all-purpose flour made our brownies tender, with a delicate chew. Plenty of unsweetened chocolate gave our brownie recipe great flavor without making them overly sweet. Determining the proper baking time was also important: too short a time in the oven, and the brownies were gummy; too long, and they dried out. Finally, toasting the nuts before sprinkling them over the brownie batter brought out their flavor and gave them great crunch.
Be sure to test for doneness before removing the brownies from the oven. If underbaked (the toothpick has batter clinging to it), the texture of the brownies will be dense and gummy; if overbaked (the toothpick comes out completely clean), the brownies will be dry and cakey.
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