Fudgy vs. Cakey: A Deep Dive on Brownies with David Lebovitz
4/20/202645 min
Young or old, everyone loves a brownie. But we all have our own preferences: fudgy or chewy, edge piece or center. The options are endless!
Today, we’re discussing all the ways you can make your brownies, from the ingredients you choose to the method you make them with. We also invite one of our favorite bakers, David Lebovitz, to share his thoughts on brownies, including his experience as an American brownie lover living in Paris. For our Ask the Bakers section, we dive into everything from cocoa powder to nailing the bake, before Jessica jumps in with a Jess-opinion all about a very specific type of brownie. And as usual, she and David close the show with the recipes they’re baking this week.
Recipes and other links from this episode:
For a real hit of nostalgia, make our Easy Frosted Brownies
Learn more about David Lebovitz and subscribe to his Substack at davidlebovitz.substack.com
Find the recipe David mentions for Helene’s brownies
Pick up the updated release of David’s The Great Book of Chocolate
Get a box of our fan-favorite Gluten-Free Fudge Brownies Mix
Find your perfect cocoa powder in our online Shop
If you do like brownie brittle, we have a great recipe
What David’s baking this week: Sun Buns (Solskinnsboller)
What Jessica’s baking this week: Mint and Cheese Ka’ak
Record your question for our Ask the Bakers segment here!
Thanks to Curio Spice Co., a woman-owned mission-driven spice company, for sponsoring this episode.
This episode is sponsored by Supernatural. Supernatural makes imaginative baking ingredients that are colored by plants, fully traceable, and totally free from anything artificial or synthetic. Learn more at supernaturalkitchen.com
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsDavid Tamarkin· Host0:00
[upbeat music] that much further, you know?
Jessica Battilana· Host0:04
God, I love brownies so much. [laughs] Um.
David Tamarkin· Host0:06
From King Arthur Baking Company, this is Things Bakers Know. I'm David Smarkin, King Arthur's editorial director.
Jessica Battilana· Host0:15
And I'm Jessica Battaglini, staff editor at King Arthur Baking. Today, we're talking about really one of my favorite baked goods, brownies.
David Tamarkin· Host0:23
[bell dings] Yeah.
Jessica Battilana· Host0:27
Who doesn't love a brownie?
David Tamarkin· Host0:28
They're everyone's favorite baked good. I mean, not to take away from you and your originality. [laughs] You are a very original person. However, this is one instance where your just opinion is, I think, widely shared.
Jessica Battilana· Host0:38
Yeah, for once.
David Tamarkin· Host0:39
A very lovable thing.
Jessica Battilana· Host0:40
Yeah.
David Tamarkin· Host0:40
I mean, there are, there are outliers, people who don't like them, but many people- I feel strongly about them.
Jessica Battilana· Host0:44
I feel strongly that I love them- Mm-hmm ... which I hardly- Yeah ... ever say on this show. [laughs] [laughs] We should start, like, a, a love and loathe list, you know? But I, brownies hold sort of a, I don't wanna say a special place in my heart, but kind of- [laughs] ... 'cause it was, like, the first- I would, I would hate to say that [laughs] I would hate to say that. I don't wanna get all emotional so early in the day, but they were the first thing I learned how to bake, and I remember I had a babysitter. She was, you know, several years older than I was, and she probably, she was actually, like, six months older. [laughs] I feel like when we were kids, our babysitters were also kids, but she had Seventeen, she had a subscription to Seventeen magazine.
David Tamarkin· Host1:24
Mm-hmm.
Jessica Battilana· Host1:24
Seventeen magazine, for a while, had a, I don't wanna say a food section,