For A Light And Fluffy Brownie, Baking Powder Is A Key Ingredient
Brownies are undeniably one of the best desserts out there, especially for chocolate lovers. One of the best aspects of brownies is how versatile they can be — you can make them fudgy or cakey (or somewhere in between). If you're a fan of a super light and fluffy brownie, then you need to go the cakey route. To do this, there's one ingredient that's more important than anything else: baking powder.
Baking powder is a leavening agent, which means that it is responsible for lifting up the batter to create that lighter consistency — making it absolutely essential for fluffy brownies. In fact, it is guaranteed to make the brownies fluffy, to the point that if you wanted the fudgy version, then you would actually leave out baking powder altogether.
Additionally, you'll want to make sure that the baking powder that you use is fresh. Baking powder doesn't actually go bad, but it does lose its effectiveness — so if you use it past its expiration date, you risk losing the fluffiness that you're after (the brownies will likely come out much closer to the denser, fudgier variation).
Other tips to ensure your brownies are light and fluffy
For fluffy brownies, you'll need to pay attention to the other ingredients, too. When it comes to a brownie recipe, it's going to call for either butter or oil. For fluffy brownies, you'll want to choose butter over oil because butter, like baking powder, helps the batter rise. Additionally, choosing a recipe that calls for cocoa powder instead of melted chocolate will help get you the consistency, as melted chocolate leads to denser, fudgier brownies.
Also, it's important not to over-mix your batter. This is actually a problem with either type of brownie, fudgy or cakey. For fluffy brownies, specifically overbeating your batter may actually end up making them tough in consistency, which is definitely not what we want — what's the point of having a fluffy brownie if it's not also super soft?
Now that you have some tricks up your sleeve, you can start experimenting with your fluffy brownies, perhaps adding in some flavors to upgrade the dessert such as chocolate banana brownies or dark chocolate rhubarb brownies.