Brownie Basics
“It’s raining, just come to the canteen for lunch,” they said. “No, my brownie fans are depending on me,” I said. So I ventured through the elements and bought me a chocolate brownie from the current title-holders of ‘best brownie on this blog’: Tea, Bread & Brownie!
Brownie Backstory
It’s been a challenging week for a few different reasons, so when Friday rolled around I was happy to get out to my regular haunt of the Southbank food market for lunch and a brownie.
I had it in my head that I was going to go back to Galeta this week, and then vaguely maintain a circuit around the three big brownie makers at the market (Galeta, TB&B, Sweet Tooth Factory). This half-formed plan had to be discarded pretty quickly because Galeta were partway through setting up, so I went for my backup. I also felt it was important to try a ‘plain’ chocolate brownie, as I’ve tended so far to shoot for the most ‘interesting’ brownie when options are presented, and it’s maybe important to bulk out my blog entries with a good baseline of standard brownies.
Returning to Tea, Bread & Brownie made me ponder if I’ll ever find a brownie that deserves full marks, and/or if I should restructure my scoring system. Even after only 25 brownies, certain areas of the possible score distribution seem to be filling up: should I try to change how I score brownies, or should I keep the current scoring system and just assume that all brownies which score (for example) 25 are equal, thus editing the leaderboard to reflect this? On balance, I think that a brownie with an interesting added element will be better than that brownie’s base on its own (assuming the added ingredient is good and doesn’t detract from the whole): does this mean a plain chocolate brownie will never reach a score of 40? What, if anything, should I do about either of these considerations?
Man, these are the sort of surprisingly tricky questions you ask yourself when you started a brownie blog for a bit of fun and then one day your colleague tells you that not only has he bought himself a brownie for lunch solely on the basis of your blog’s recommendation, but he told the bakery that that’s exactly what he was doing, and now it’s a whole thing and needs to be treated with seriousness and care.
Brownie Points
Taste: I dunno how many more “it tasted good and of chocolate” lines I can write for different brownies. But this did taste very good. 8/10
Texture: Sadly, not quite as rich or moist as the cheesecake brownie, but still generally a very good texture. It’s just dried out a bit too much and has too much of a crunchy edge piece. 7/10
Presentation: I think it looks really good, dark and rich in the cross-section, and a nice smooth crust on top, only broken where I accidentally bashed it while it was in the bag. 4/5
Value: At £2, it’s cheaper than its cheesecake-containing fellow, and conversely not as great, but probably about equivalent value. 8/10
Fudge Factor: I am, if I’m honest, somewhat disappointed with this: it’s a good brownie, for sure, but the cheesecake brownie was superb, and I can’t quite see why the throughline between the two is not obviously. I fundamentally feel that this brownie should be able to be as good as the base of the cheesecake brownie, and… it’s not. -1/5
In Total: 26
Should I Buy And Eat This Brownie?
This is a good brownie! I’d recommend it if it stood on its own. Or if you’re at Southbank food market and can only afford to spend exactly £2 on a brownie. In most circumstances, though, I would recommend this only if you’re sick of the Tea, Bread & Brownie cheesecake brownie: the difference in quality is sufficiently great that you should go for that one instead.
Closing Thought
I’ve just realised that I haven’t had a drop of coffee all day, and should probably rectify this before the afternoon really gets underway.
BROWNIE POINTS 