Alton Brown's Trick For Extra-Fudgy Brownies Is A Temperature Trick You Won't Find On A Box

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If you consider yourself a lover of brownies (and really, when was the last time you met someone who didn't?), you will know that when it comes to this blissful sweet treat, texture is as important as taste. You can use the highest quality ingredients, frost them with buttercream, and pack them with nuts, marshmallows, or chocolate chips — if your tray comes out the oven and yields a brownie that is overly dry, tough, or lacking in that prized, elusive gooey center, it will all seem like a depressing waste of effort. Fortunately, chef, author, and "Good Eats" host Alton Brown has a simple yet rewarding method for achieving extra-fudgy results, thanks to a temperature trick you're unlikely to find on a brownie mix box.

Brown provides a recipe for cocoa brownies on his website in which he notes a tweak on the original — that he describes as "proof positive that technique is just as important as ingredients, especially when it comes to chocolaty goodness." Brown posits that the key to achieving maximal oozing decadence in the heart of your brownie is twofold, and one of them relates to temperature. While brownies are commonly baked at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for roughly 25 to 35 minutes, Brown instead advises baking for 15 minutes at 300 degrees Fahrenheit, then removing the pan from the oven and allowing it to cool for 15 minutes. Then the pan is returned for 30 additional minutes at 300 degrees Fahrenheit, or until an instant-read thermometer (like this ThermoMaven one from Amazon — one of the two kinds of thermometer Brown says every kitchen needs) tells you that the brownie mix at the center of the pan has reached 195 degrees Fahrenheit. Let your chocolatey bounty cool once again for 30 minutes in the pan, then for 10 minutes on a rack before cutting.

The other reason that Brown's recipe pays such fudgy textural dividends is that it calls for a liberal amount of natural cocoa powder, which produces a batter that's "much thicker than, say, a boxed mix," Brown writes. He assures us this is nothing to worry about. Once the cocoa powder is sifted together with flour, granulated sugar, light brown sugar, and salt, eggs are beaten in a stand mixer, until fluffy and lightly yellow in color. Once the speed is reduced, the sugar mixture is gradually incorporated, along with butter and vanilla, then poured into a greased pan, ready for the oven. An electric hand mixer would also do a good job.

If you're absolutely dedicated to making your brownies as gooey and delicious as they can be, then in addition to making use of Brown's hack, you may wish to peruse our 15 tips for making the best fudgy brownies, some of which could easily be adapted or included into Brown's recipe. To intensify the flavor and produce an even denser result, for example, we recommend allowing your batter to rest overnight. We also advise that you don't skimp on the chocolate chips, but let's be real here — you probably could have figured that one out on your own.