Fudgy Brownies (ATK)

• servings: 16

Ingredients

¾ cup all-purpose flour

1/3 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder

½ teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 tablespoons low-fat sour cream

1 tablespoon chocolate syrup

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 large egg plus 1 large egg white

1 cup sugar

Directions

1. Adjust oven rack to middle posi- tion and heat oven to 350 degrees. Fold two 12-inch pieces foil lengthwise so each measures 7 inches wide. Fit 1 sheet into 8-inch-square baking dish, pushing foil into corners and up sides of pan (overhang will help in removal of brownies). Repeat with second sheet, placing in pan perpendicular to first sheet. Spray foil with cooking spray.

2. Whisk flour, cocoa, baking pow- der, and salt together in medium bowl. Melt bittersweet chocolate and butter in large bowl until smooth (see note at left). Cool 2 to 3 minutes, then whisk in sour cream, chocolate syrup, vanilla, egg, egg white, and sugar. Using rubber spatula, fold dry ingredients into chocolate mixture until combined.

3. Pour batter into pan, spread into corners, and level surface with spatula. Bake until slightly puffed and toothpick inserted in center comes out with a few sticky crumbs attached, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool brownies completely in pan on wire rack, at least 1 hour. Remove brownies from pan using foil handles. Cut into 2-inch squares and serve. To keep brownies moist, do not cut until ready to serve. (Brownies can be wrapped in plastic and refrigerated for 3 days.)

Notes

It's easy to make an uninspired, cakey low-fat brownie, but what about a fudgy one worth eating?

I have tried many recipes for "healthy" brownies, but it usually takes just one bite for me to regret the effort. Either the texture is incredibly dry or the chocolate flavor is anemic. The best of the lot are usually cakey and spongy, which is OK if what you want is a flat piece of chocolate cake but not if you want a real brownie, which should be moist, fudgy, and packed with chocolate flavor. Fudgy brownies tend to rely on a generous amount of butter (usually an entire stick) and unsweetened chocolate (at least 2 ounces, often more). Many low-fat brownie recipes call for "alternative" ingredients such as applesauce, prune puree, or even yogurt, but the test kitchen's opinion of these stand-ins was unanimously negative.

Applesauce masked the chocolate flavor and gave the brownies a texture that reminded me of an oily sponge. Prune puree yielded flavorless hockey pucks. Although yogurt produced a pleasing exture, tasters turned up their noses at he tart flavor. I decided to stick with the test kitchen's favorite recipe for fudgy brownies and see where I might trim calories and fat.

Cocoa powder, which is unsweetened chocolate with most of the fat removed, is a common ingredient in many low-fat chocolate recipes. Replacing all of the chocolate with cocoa powder is a mistake-the result was a very dry texture. Replacing all but 2 ounces was a vastly better approach. I also found that Dutch-processed brands contributed more flavor than "natural" cocoas. The last trick was to use bittersweet chocolate, which has less fat per ounce (by about 5 grams) than unsweetened chocolate. It was time to confront the real problem with low-fat brownies: the butter. Leave it out and you might as well throw the brownies in the trash. But to make a significant dent in the calorie and fat count, I couldn't add more than 2 tablespoons-far less than the usual stick- and that meant dry, cakey brownies. I would have to find another source of moisture to make my brownies more gooey. A squirt of chocolate syrup (such as Hershey's), which contains no fat and plenty of chocolate flavor, helped things along, but it wasn't enough. In my research, I ran across several low-fat chocolate cake recipes that called for nonfat sour cream. Could it help my brownies? After my first test, I would have said no. The brownies were still too dry. Then, in place of the non- fat sour cream, I tried low fat, which has only about one-third the fat of the regular stuff. These brownies were much better, not just moist and fudgy but also more tender. That's because the acidity in sour cream has a tenderizing effect on baked goods. I had trimmed more than half the calories and two-thirds of the fat from my favorite fudgy brownie recipe. And my low-fat brownies were good enough to merit a second, even a third bite— with no regrets. -Meredith Butcher

Melt the chocolate and butter together in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water or in a microwave set to 50 percent power. For a truly fudgy consistency, don't overbake the brownies; as soon as a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with sticky crumbs attached, the brownies are done. If the toothpick emerges with no crumbs, the brownies will be cakey.

Sour Cream in Brownies?

We found that an unlikely ingredient-low-fat sour cream-helped keep our brownies fudgy even though they contain very little butter.