Brownie Basics
This brownie is from a Greenwich bakery, which is one of the few places I could still get a coffee post-5pm on my Sunday evening walk, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to also get one of their brownies.
Brownie Background
One small but underappreciated aspect of this occasional blog is that I spend quite a bit of time Googling the places from which I’ve bought brownies, so I can find something write in this bit. You might say that this is pretty useless knowledge, and maybe you’re right, but nevertheless I generally favour knowledge for its own sake.
So, Paul Rhodes Bakery seems to have been founded in 2003 by a chap called Paul Rhodes (funny that) to supply superb baking products to restaurants. The bakery also runs what is charmingly described as a “neighbourhood bakery shop” in the middle of Greenwich and this is the lens through which I have experienced their products! I think my first time was during my birthday last year, when I headed into town (during a somewhat less-locked-down period) to see what I could do to assuage my otherwise lonely and sad day on my own. I decided to treat myself to ‘birthday cake’ and bought a frankly excellent slice of coffee cake.
I’ve been in a few times since, including one particularly depressing evening when Boris was busy cancelling Christmas on live TV and I was trying to work out what to do with the last six hours before I would be locked in my flat again. I decided to get some treats from Paul Rhodes Bakery, and was extraordinarily touched by the way the staff gave me a free mince pie “because Christmas”. It was a damn good mince pie too.
For no particular reason, Paul Rhodes Bakery is one Greenwich bakery where I’ve never managed to snag any of the bread but have enjoyed a lot of the other things they have to offer – cake, brownie, shortbread, chocolate, mince pie, coffee (the coffee’s damn good as well), and naturally this is another one where I’ve tried at least one of the brownies before. Why yes. There are more than one. I’m sure that more will appear in this blog soon! Lots of the others are in the form of “brownie traybakes” as well… mmm…
But what I’ve gone for here is just their standard brownie – nothing fancy, not even the deliberately vegan version. Let’s dig in and see how this is.
Brownie Points
Taste
Yeah, pretty great. That extremely satisfying blend of rich chocolate and sugary sweet. I might have tasted better brownies, but it’s not like I could remember any of them while eating this. 8/10
Texture
The texture was truly excellent. I’ve wondered for a little while if a straightforward chocolate brownie could reach the maximum 10 points in this section for me, and I have to say, this came about as close as I’ve ever known. The majority of this brownie’s texture was essentially perfect. It only came down a little bit because I have to say that the edge was slightly over-done. So slightly! So close to perfection! As a result I have elected to do something I’ve never done before on this blog and give my first ever 9.5/10
Presentation
It is perfectly good-looking, a nicely formed top crust, and good clean slices. Since it’s just a plain chocolate brownie in a brown paper bag, there’s not much more you can say about it really. I think there’d be scope for higher points in this section if there were some sort of sit-down cafe where I could enjoy this brownie: granted, not so possible during covid, but seeing as how the bakery is already takeaway only I don’t feel so bad in making the point. No problems here, just nothing massively exciting to score on. 3/5
Value
Fun behind-the-scenes fact: I realised I’m out of practice when it comes to brownies, and had totally forgotten to note the price down. Also, my Monzo statement didn’t help, because it only showed me the price of the brownie and a macchiato combined! So I had to go back to Paul Rhodes Bakery a few days after I started writing this post, and concluded that the brownie costs £2.50, and that is pretty great value to be honest. I reckon it gets 8/10
Fudge Factor
Paul Rhodes Bakery is pretty great, I’ve never been disappointed by something I bought from there, and you should check it out when you get the chance. 5/5
Final Score: 33.5
Should I Buy And Eat This Brownie?
You sure should! This is extremely high scoring, especially for a standard chocolate brownie which isn’t splashing out on chocolate chips, caramel, cookie dough, etc. Probably the only reason I won’t be buying it any time soon is that I now want to test out the other brownies on offer here – there are a few!
Closing Thoughts
I’m pretty excited for the Mass Effect trilogy remaster! It might get me to buy a next-generation console, even.
BROWNIE POINTS 