Make One Brownie Mistake On Purpose For The Fudgiest Texture

There are two types of people in the world: Those who adore a cakey high-rise brownie and those who crave a super-fudgy, squat brownie with a decadently rich, squishy middle. If you're in the latter camp, you need to start making one mistake on purpose when preparing your next batch of these chocolatey beauties by ditching the recommended cooking time and underbaking them.

The best way to check if a regular sponge cake is ready to be removed from the oven is to press a finger on the middle (if it bounces back after you've made a gentle indentation on its surface, your cake is ready). However, this trick is useless when making fudgy brownies because under that shiny, crackled crust, the middle is supposed to be dense and rich rather than light, airy, and springy. To guarantee your brownies have that distinctive, almost sticky mouthfeel, remove them from the oven at the perfect sweet spot when the edges have begun to set but the center still has a slight wobble. This means you need to keep a vigilant eye on them, perhaps pulling them out three to four minutes before the recipe advises. If you're not confident with eyeballing it, insert a cake tester in the middle and it should come out looking slightly damp (too clean means it's overcooked and downright gungy means it needs a couple more minutes). 

While you might be concerned about the food safety issue of removing your brownies from the oven early, bear in mind that they'll continue to cook in the residual heat inside them as they cool. The eggs and flour will keep cooking as your brownies sit in the tin and the center will set rather than be overly gooey (think of it like baking a Portuguese Pastéis de Nata that's supposed to be wobbly when removed from the oven so the custard can set to tender perfection). Once cooled your brownies will have a yielding interior but just enough structural integrity to keep their shape when you slice into them. However, if you find that they're so fudgy that you can't neatly slice through them with a regular knife, consider using a plastic knife. This cheap hack that makes cutting brownies a breeze works so well because the plastic has a non-stick quality that glides through a squishy-textured brownie to make perfect neat squares.

Another brownie mix hack is to select a box or recipe that uses more brown sugar than white. This will create a chocolatey square with a chewier, denser consistency. Moreover, be mindful to use the correct size brownie pan (if too big, your brownie will cook faster and become dry).