AND THE BROWNIE WINNER GOES TO...

Well, I'm sick again. I think you all are familiar with my propensity for catching colds and this winter has not been an exception. The cold I currently have can be traced directly to my co-workers, 3 of whom were sick last week (including my boss. He even took a sick day earlier this week) and Tom, who took a sick day on Monday. But being sick means I have time to sit in bed and blog, and that's certainly something I haven't had much time for of late.

So after the great brownie bakeoff, I have an offical winner and it is the Cook's Illustrated brownie recipe. Now, I'm someone who likes a bit of cakeiness to my brownie and a little crunch to the top and the Cook's Illustrated testing method really paid off in this situation. The brownies were a bit cakey, but not too much, not overly sweet and they developed a nice crunch to the top. Here are the other results...

#2 goes to the Ina Garten Outrageous brownie recipe. These brownie were more fudgie, but had a nice added bitterness due to the addition of espresso powder. It also had more deep chocolate flavor, and I think ultimately, Huong and Kjell will go for this version.

#3 goes to the Nick Malgeri Supernatural brownies. They had a nice, soft cakey texture, but the top was too fragile and it was far too sweet. Coming in a total of 4 cups of sugar for one batch, it really just too much sugar.

And last place goes to the Alice Medrich brownie recipe from her Bittersweet cookbook. This was the only recipe that used cocoa rather than actual chocolate, and it come out being almost fudgey and dry, without an cakeiness to it at all. I had one nibble and that was enough for me.

And still, after all this, my favorite brownies that come out of a Duncan Heins box. I guess that's what millions of dollars and countless hours of recipe testing gets you. Oh well, what matters is that Huong and Kjell like their wedding brownies.