Brownies With Milk Chocolate

Asked by Aprettypixie. Answered on 14th October 2020

Full question

I halved the Brownie recipe and replaced the dark chocolate with milk chocolate. They turned out very rich and literally oozing butter. Used about 190g butter. Any idea what could have gone wrong?

Brownies

By Nigella

Our answer

Nigella's Brownies (from HOW TO BE A DOMESTIC GODDESS) are squidgy chocolate brownies that are made with dark (bittersweet) chocolate and rich with butter and sugar. The recipe suggests using best-quality dark chocolate, which means chocolate with a high content of cocoa solids (we suggest 70%, if possible).

Dividing the ingredients in half and baking in a sutable pan should not be the cause of the problem. We suspect that switching the dark chocolate for milk chocolate may have affected the texture of the brownies. Milk chocolate has a significantly higher proportion of fat and sugar and a much lower proportion of cocoa solids (typically 20-25%). In the cheaper brands of milk chocolate the fat is also often vegetable fat rather than cocoa butter. Increasing the amount of fat in the recipe will cause the brownies to be more greasy and is most likely the reason for the over-rich brownie. We would suggest sticking with dark chocolate if you make the brownies again.