Olivia Piepmeier

Sourdough Brownies

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Wednesday, May 17, 2023
Categories: dessert sourdough
A watercolor illustration looking into a red stand mixer bowl as it mixes the sugar and eggs. A shiny white paint was used for the mix. At the bottom "BROWNIES" are written in green and underlined.

inspired by Little Spoon Farm

Ingredients

  • 8 tablespoons (113 g) butter, sliced up for speedier melting
  • 340 g semi sweet chocolate chips
  • 40 g cocoa powder (current fav: Bensdorp)
  • 10 g vanilla extract
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 180 g granulated sugar
  • 100 g brown sugar
  • 125 g sourdough discard
  • 120 g white whole wheat flour (AP is fine but if you can use white whole wheat why not? Remember, this is different than whole wheat)
  • 5 g salt

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350F.
  2. Grease up a 9x9 baking dish.
  3. Melt the butter and chocolate chips in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Stir often to make sure there’s no scorching of the chocolate.
  4. Add the cocoa powder & vanilla and stir until the mixture is smooth.
  5. Set aside and allow it to cool.
  6. In a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, beat the eggs and sugars on medium-high speed for 7 minutes. Really!
  7. Add the discard and chocolate mixture to the bowl and beat on low speed to combine. This is fun cause it gradually turns deep brown.
  8. Add the flour and salt to the bowl and use a spatula to gently stir them into the batter.
  9. Pour the batter into the baking dish, smooth evenly and bake for 55 minutes, until fudge crumbs are achieved. Maybe start checking at 50 just in case. Just make sure the toothpick doesn’t look like it’s still liquid in the middle.
  10. Remove from the oven and allow the brownies to cool completely in the baking dish before cutting.

Thoughts

I had made this illustration last year but then got distracted by other recipes. I’m glad I didn’t post it then, because I had yet to discover that this is COMPLETELY FINE with white whole wheat. Why not make your dessert a bit more nutritional, especially if you can’t even tell it’s “healthier”? I’ve only made it once this way, but I’d wager if there is a difference…it’s in the texture. This is a lovely moist brownie but cooking it until fudgy crumbs were seen on the toothpick just made it a tad drier than I’d like but they’re still excellent!

I’ve started to experiment with more “how much white whole wheat can I put in this” recently, beyond just slowly putting more in my sandwich bread each time. I’m grateful for this option, as I cannot even with whole wheat. King Arthur has a nice little explainer about what the hell is white whole wheat.

As a life-long fan of the taste and texture of boxed brownie mix, this is my go-to recipe now. I think a lot of it has to do with the inclusion of both chocolate chips and coco powder (and I am in LOVE with King Arthur’s Bensdorp coco powder) AND the fact you mix it for 7 minutes (the element I attempted to illustrate above). I know I could look up the science here but I’m feeling lazy - it’s like all the mixing makes it shiny like macaroons or something, which is to me a characteristic of boxed brownie mixes that has seemed out of grasp for homemade versions until now.