Brownie Basics
The time has come for me to review Galeta’s standard brownie offering: I’ve already looked at the blondie and the salted caramel brownie, and today I just have their basic chocolate brownie.
Brownie Backstory
What was the motivation for picking this one? Well, the base brownie recipe is: eggs, flour, butter, sugar, chocolate (or ‘cocoa’, but as discussed I think it’s gotta be actual chocolate to make a good brownie). Arguably, anything on top of those five is a variant on the ‘brownie’ recipe and it should be remembered as such.
Based on this, I wonder if I should worry about the fact that (at time of writing) somewhere between a quarter and a third of all the blog posts on this blog refer to normal chocolate brownies. That’s still a dominant segment – it’s not like there are more salted caramel brownies than regular brownies, or anything like that – but I think it’s worth keeping an eye on this. Realistically it’s likely that the best brownie I ever eat will not be a ‘simple’ chocolate brownie, but on the other hand, the brownie that ‘got me into brownies’ was pretty standard – the only addition was white chocolate chips, which isn’t a million miles away from the ‘sugar’ and ‘chocolate’ requirements. (It was the old Costa brownie, and we’ll talk about that some day soon).
I have a definite tendency towards picking the ‘most interesting’ brownie variant when I have a choice, and in my head I think that’s because I’ve eaten huge amounts of basic brownies and so seek to broaden my horizons. But of course, this blog is going for the widest coverage possible, and so I can’t just always seek to eat the best or most interesting brownie I can find (that’s why, for example, I put myself through some questionable high-fibre low-calorie brownies). I need to also eat chocolate brownies and blog about chocolate brownies. It’s important to build up that reference base.
And so that’s why today, for the standard Southbank food market brownie visit, there remain a bunch of ‘more interesting’ brownies that I’m yet to try but I spurned them for today and bought the one remaining Galeta brownie that I don’t have experience of: the chocolate brownie. Ok, so I do have experience of it of course. As it happens, I’m pretty sure I was eating a Galeta chocolate brownie when I originally was told I should start this blog. But this blog as an entity does not have an entry on this brownie, and so I decided it’s time it did.
Galeta’s website suggests that this is indeed the last of their brownies that I haven’t blogged about: I checked, just in case there was a secret almond brownie or something that they just didn’t sell at the market, but it does seem it’s only these three, after trawling through their website and their wholesale list for some time. Fun fact: these brownies are apparently also award-winning! No sign of which awards, but is that really important in the grand scheme of things? It might be a Pulitzer for all we know!
Brownie Points
Taste: Some brownies taste great because a whole bunch of stuff is thrown into the batter, all of which tastes great in itself, and then the resulting taste is superb. This brownie tastes good because it is the simplest version of a brownie, done extremely well. 9/10
Texture: “Our recipe results in a chocolate brownie that is chewy at the edges and gooey and fudgey at the centre”, say Galeta. Ok, so it’s a recipe for brownies that are baked, got it. Snark aside, the texture is pretty good, although for my money it was a bit too chewy and not enough gooey all the way through. Still pretty good though. 7/10
Presentation: You would look at it and think “Yes, it is a brownie”, and I don’t think there is anything else that can be said about it. It’s… a uniform shape? 3/5
Value: Ok, this was just £2, which is actually really great value! Think about it – that’s cheaper than either of its siblings, and I think it may actually be the cheapest brownie you can get at the food market. 9/10
Fudge Factor: I’ll chuck a few points at the brownie that started it all. Or at least is one of the brownies that can claim, by some definition, to have started it all. And by ‘all’ I of course mean ‘this blog’. If you want less arbitrariness: kudos to a very simple chocolate brownie that can compete on a level playing field with more exciting and far more complex brownie recipes. 2/5
Brownie Scores On The Doors: 30
Should I Buy And Eat This Brownie?
If you like brownies, you should buy and eat this brownie. On a personal note, when the bottom falls out of the brownie blog market and I start revisiting the old favourites, I think I’ll probably go for the peanut butter blondie from Galeta over the other two options, but that really is just me. This is a tasty tasty brownie.
Closing Thought
It’s raining a lot, for August.
BROWNIE POINTS 