What went wrong with my brownies?
I've read numerous forum posts and mini-articles about substituting applesauce for oil in brownie mix, but for some reason it went horribly wrong:
(Okay, that's actually after trying to salvage it by putting it back in the oven after grabbing some good slivers off the edge)
Best Answer
I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say...underbaked.
Either you didn't leave it in long enough or your oven wasn 't hot enough. Realize many, many ovens can be significantly off their 'set' temperature. An oven thermometer is a great investment.
(I don't believe applesauce had anything to do with this unless you put like 10x the amount of applesauce in.)
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Quick Answer about "What went wrong with my brownies?"
Overmixing your batter can cause you to incorporate too much air into the brownies, leading to a change in texture. According to Food52, you want to mix any batter until it forms a uniform dough, no more and no less.What did I do wrong with my brownies?
6 Common Mistakes People Make when Baking BrowniesWhy did my brownies fail?
When you beat the eggs and butter you incorporate air into them, and the flour stabilizes the air bubbles. But if too much air is in the mixture for the amount of flour, the brownies "over-expand" as they bake, but collapse, or cave in, as they cool and the unstable air bubbles deflate.How do you fix a failed brownie?
Take the brownies out of the oven. Since the edges are done, cut them off. If the leftover middle section is on the larger side, cut it in half and scoot the two pieces apart. Put it back in the oven to finish baking.What happens if you overcook brownies?
If you've waited to take your brownies out of the oven until there are no more crumbs stuck to the toothpick, brace yourself for the disappointment of overcooked brownies. Instead of soft and fudgy, these are more likely to be dry and crumbly.The Biggest Mistakes Everyone Makes When Baking Brownies
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Answer 2
Yeah, something just looks wrong there! Why are the edges so cooked and yet even an inch from the edge it's still completely wet? I have to imagine it's under-cooked like rfusca. However, from the looks of it, cooking it til the center is done would burn the edges.
My advice: try it again, but make one batch with oil (per the box) and make one batch with your 100% applesauce substitution. Bake them the same amount of time, in the same oven, on the same rack, in similar pans (if possible), and at the same temperature.
When you test for doneness, check about 3-4 inches diagonally in from a corner. A toothpick should come out dry. Don't check directly in the middle... by time that's dry, the rest of the brownies will be overcooked.
By that point, you should have a good understanding of the problem source.
Answer 3
Although substituting 1:1 sounds great, you should start substituting from a ratio of 1c oil to 1/2 cup oil & 1/2 cup applesauce. This is just a beginning point for your recipe; try increasing your ratio to favor the applesauce bit by bit to see how much your recipe can bear. Maybe it can go all the way to 1:1, with many cookies and other cakes this is not always the case.
The other possibility is that you mixed the batter too thoroughly or did not adhere to the rule of adding dry ingredients at the very last moment then mixing gently. Brownies are much like cakes and do not tolerate over mixing too well. Oddly, over-mixing leads to gluten strands, not the molten looking mass above.
@Rfusca may be right that a thermometer may be called for, but if this was an isolated incident with an otherwise happy oven, I would start with a less equivocal substitution, verify that you are adding dry to wet at the last moment, and that you are not over mixing (check youtube for visuals on how to know it's properly mixed).
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