Brownies!

     My roommate and I love to bake! We'll make anything from cookies to cakes, from pies to brownies, and anything we can think of. Last night she made brownies. They were good, but not quite the amazing either of us was expecting: they came out dry. Now, that's not going to stop either of us from eating them in one sitting if we don't stop ourselves. But still, is there a reason a perfectly good recipe turned sour?

     The first thing I thought of was the oven. It's new to us both, having just moved into the dorm, and we haven't exactly worked all the kinks out. Then there was the fact that rather than using the (super expensive) baker's chocolate we used powdered cocoa and vegetable oil (as suggested on the box of cocoa). A final, but unlikely, reason for the dryness was overcooking. We both came down on the side of using the powdered cocoa as the cause.
     How are we going to fix this? Easy answer: we don't know. We talked about taking the brownies out early, adding more oil or other liquid, or even using shortening rather than oil, but none of them are known fixes. This isn't going to stop us, but it was an unexpected first bite into a fresh brownie when it crumbled down our faces.

Just a thought....
Stephie