No matter if you’re making a box mix or from-scratch brownie recipe, it can sometimes be a little tricky to hit that perfectly fudgy or cakey sweet spot between undercooked and over-baked brownies. While I believe that essentially any brownie is a good brownie, making sure you know when to take the brownies out of the oven can make the difference between a good brownie and great brownie.
What Is the Toothpick Test for Brownies?
To test for doneness with a toothpick, insert a toothpick into the center of the brownies and pull it back out.
For fudgy brownies, you’ll want to see some moist crumbs attached to the toothpick when you pull it back out. If it looks like it’s covered in brownie batter, the brownies will need to bake a bit longer. If the toothpick is totally clean, the brownies may already be over-baked.
For cakey brownies, you’re looking for a toothpick that is clean or has just a few crumbs attached.
How to Tell if Brownies Are Done Without a Toothpick
No toothpick? No problem. For cakey brownies, you’ll be looking for brownies that are evenly dry on top with edges that are starting to pull away from the sides of the pan.
Fudgy brownies can be a bit more difficult to judge without using something to test for doneness in the middle. You can use a butter knife to test for doneness – as with the toothpick, you’ll want to make sure you don’t have an excessive amount of batter clinging to the knife. Just know that it can be harder to look for that “few crumbs attached” level of doneness with a butter knife. Other alternatives for toothpicks include cake testers (they’re reusable!) or wooden skewers, like you might use for kabobs.
Fudgy vs. Undercooked Brownies
Want to make sure that your brownies are still fudgy but not raw? The truth is, fudgy brownies are slightly undercooked. The key is to make sure the center of the brownies is set and that the toothpick doesn’t look too gooey when you remove it from the brownies.
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It can be difficult to resist a warm, gooey brownie straight from the oven, but letting the brownies cool for at least an hour before cutting them helps the brownies set in the middle, especially if you’re following a recipe for fudgy brownies.
For a perfect cut on your brownies, try refrigerating them before cutting – it’s much easier to achieve perfect squares when a brownie is firm from the fridge.
If you’re adding a frosting to your brownies, you’ll want to make sure the brownies are fully cooled first, or the residual heat from the brownies will melt the frosting.
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When Should You Remove Brownies From the Pan?
Brownies will be easiest to remove from the pan when they are fully cooled, because they will be fully set and firm. If you want to be able to remove the brownies from the pan without cutting them first, you can line the pan with parchment paper, allowing it to hang over the sides of the pan. Once the brownies are fully cooled, use the parchment to carefully lift them out of the pan and transfer to a cutting board.
More Tips for Making Sure Your Brownies Will Be Perfectly Cooked:
Make sure you’re using the same size pan that the recipe does. Shifting from a 13x9-inch pan to a 9x9-inch pan will give you thicker brownies that will likely take longer to bake (if all of the batter even fits into the smaller pan). Note that the material your pan is made out of will also make a difference, as brownies in a glass baking dishes or pans with a very dark coating tend to bake a bit faster than a lighter-colored pan.
Start checking for doneness at the beginning of the bake time range, or even a minute or two early. Most home ovens are not perfectly calibrated (running at the temperature the oven is set for), and if your oven is running hot, your brownies may bake faster than what the recipe says.
Speaking of oven temperatures, use an oven thermometer to check how hot your oven really is when it says it’s reached the temperature listed in the recipe. Check your manual – some ovens can be calibrated easily by yourself, but if yours cannot, you can make adjustments by setting your oven higher or lower as needed.
If the toothpick is totally clean, the brownies may already be over-baked. For cakey brownies, you're looking for a toothpick that is clean or has just a few crumbs attached.
Look at your knife set and find the one with the thinnest blade. Then insert the blade into the center of the cake. If the knife comes out clean, the cake is done. If batter or crumbs stick to the blade, let your cake bake a few minutes more and retest with a clean knife.
It's a sliding scale, and you can make just about any brownie texture from very gooey, to very cakey. Some might call brownies that fall in the middle chewy, however, we'll just call them slightly gooey, or slightly cakey.
Gently shake the pan back and forth a few times and look at the middle of the brownies—if you're cooking fudgy brownies, they should wobble or jiggle slightly. They'll finish cooking after you take them out of the oven. If you're cooking chewy or cakey brownies, you shouldn't see any movement in the middle of the pan.
Put the brownies back in the 300 degree oven and bake until a cooking thermometer reads 195 degrees, or about 30 more minutes. Finally, you'll cool the brownies for 30 minutes in the pan, then for 10 minutes on a cooling rack before slicing with a pizza cutter (my favorite tip) and serving.
Wait until your brownies have completely cooled to room temperature. As brownies cool, they will solidify and set up, so slicing into them too early can result in brownie squares that fall apart or become a mess very quickly. Note: I don't recommend slicing baked brownies until just before you plan to serve them!
Brownies keep cooking after you remove them from the oven, so you'll end up with an overcooked batch if you wait until there are no crumbs at all. Using an oven thermometer can also help you avoid overbaking because it'll tell you the exact temperature of your oven.
Do Brownies Need to Be Refrigerated? Brownies don't need to be refrigerated, but they'll hold up a few more days if they are. Unless your brownies include more perishable ingredients like fresh fruit or cream cheese frosting, they'll be fine at room temperature as long as they're stored in an airtight container.
If the recipe you're using gives instructions for a specific cooling method, follow it and wait for your brownies to cool completely. If there aren't specific instructions, leave the brownies in the pan, put the pan on a rack and let them cool completely (which means a 2 to 3 hour wait).
Fudgy brownies are moist, dense and gooey, with almost the texture of fudge, but not quite as compact. Chewy brownies are dense (like fudgy brownies), but have a little more “bite” to them or elastic texture when you chew them.
The ideal consistency of brownie mix is thick and gooey, similar to a thick cake batter. When you mix the ingredients together, the batter should be smooth and free of lumps, with a slightly sticky texture. This consistency is important for achieving moist and fudgy brownies that are rich in flavor.
If the recipe you're using gives instructions for a specific cooling method, follow it and wait for your brownies to cool completely. If there aren't specific instructions, leave the brownies in the pan, put the pan on a rack and let them cool completely (which means a 2 to 3 hour wait).
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.
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