Skip to main content
Dessert

Brownie's Food

A chocolate brownie batter with a sweet cream frosting.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Brownie's Food

Ingredients

Directions

Make the chocolate base

  1. Combine 1 cup brown sugar, ½ cup sweet milk, and ⅓ cup grated chocolate in a saucepan.

  2. Boil the mixture and set aside to cool.

Make the batter

  1. Cream together ¼ cup butter and 1 cup brown sugar in a mixing bowl.

  2. Add ½ cup milk, 2 cups flour, and 1 teaspoon baking soda to the butter mixture.

  3. Incorporate the cooled chocolate mixture and stir in 1 teaspoon vanilla.

  4. Pour the batter into prepared baking pans.

Bake and finish

  1. Bake until done.

  2. Whip together ½ cup sweet cream and 1 pound confectioners' sugar until smooth.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Flour
Provides the structure that holds the brownie together as it bakes.
Baking soda
Reacts with the mixture to produce gas that helps the batter rise.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and rich flavor in the batter.
Grated chocolate
Supplies the chocolate flavor and deep color of the brownies.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and contributes a caramel-like flavor.

The step that matters

Let the chocolate mixture cool before adding it. Adding a hot chocolate mixture to the creamed butter and sugar can melt the butter and loosen the batter, changing its texture and rise.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

More brownies recipes

Chocolate 5Fudge 3Passover 3Peanut Butter 3 See all 22 →

You might also like

Chocolate CreamChocolate Cream171 recipesVanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesChocolate CookiesChocolate Cookies76 recipesChocolate FudgeChocolate Fudge55 recipes