For The Best Gooey, Melty Brownies, Try Mary Berry's Sugar Tip

You might well have your favorite brownie recipe down pat, ready to whip up for birthdays, holidays, or those days when a sweet treat just feels essential. But when Mary Berry drops a few words of wisdom on how to nail the texture of a tray of brownies, it's worth paying attention. The culinary icon shared her ultimate chocolate brownie recipe on her YouTube channel, mentioning that the secret to a gooey center is using light muscovado sugar. 

One of the more minimally processed types of sugar, muscovado sugar has a rich flavor and high moisture content that's perfect for baking brownies. While watching Berry's video, you'll probably note a few other differences that make her recipe fudgier and richer than a standard chocolate brownie recipe. Berry skips the cocoa powder and instead relies on a considerable amount of chocolate to impart that deep chocolate flavor. It's melted together with butter, after which she adds the light muscovado sugar and four eggs. There's a minimal amount of self-rising flour (only 75 grams), so there's no chance these brownies will be dry. She then adds vanilla and extra chocolate chips to finish. 

The sheer volume of wet ingredients here might leave you wondering if these brownies will hold together, but you can trust the professional chef and baker. You might know her as a former judge on "The Great British Bake Off," but Berry has been writing cookbooks since 1970 and has more than 80 publications to her name.

Muscovado sugar is instantly recognizable for its dark color and sticky texture. Both of these traits come from the naturally occurring cane molasses that's left in the sugar (compare this with brown sugar, which is first refined before a small amount of molasses is added back in). Muscovado sugar is available in light or dark options — the former has slightly less molasses. 

It's this molasses that gives your cooking a much deeper flavor than what white sugar can offer. It's often described as caramel- or toffee-like, making it a great choice for gingerbread or caramel sauces. When combined with chocolate, like in our muscovado chocolate ganache, the slight bitterness can create a toasty flavor that's similar to coffee. As with Mary Berry's brownie recipe, the molasses content in the sugar also increases the moisture of what you're baking. Try muscovado sugar for tender coffee cakes that stay moister for longer, or a batch of cookies that are chewy rather than crisp. 

The properties that make this sugar unique won't necessarily be suitable for all your baked treats. Anything where a neutral sweetener is required (such as a vanilla sponge) or where a pale color is needed as with pastel macarons, regular white sugar will be the best choice.