Brownie Mix: Up to Scratch?

America’s love affair with brownies is alive and well.

Chewy or fudgy; from scratch, from a mix or from the bakery section of the supermarket. Any way you like them, they’re out there.

That’s no surprise: America’s sweet tooth is well documented. What is surprising, though, is that the majority of the brownies eaten every day--63% of them, to give the best industry estimate--come out of the home oven.

That’s from Harry Balzer, vice president at the NPD Group, a consumer market research firm based in Port Washington, N.Y. But it’s not as cozy and old-fashioned as it may sound.

Enter Betty Crocker, Duncan Hines and Pillsbury with the boxed brownie mix, which accounts for about 40% of that 63%. Ironic? As Mona Doyle, president of the Consumer Network, a consumer food research firm, puts it, “We’re seeing a lot of interest in cooking and baking from young women, but they want it quick.”

Quick is what they get with mixes. An experienced mix-maker can have the brownies from box to oven in 5 minutes flat. Brownie mixes seem reassuring as well. After all, even if Grandma baked cakes from scratch, she might have made brownies from one of the mixes that came on the market in the early 1950s.

What exactly are these new young bakers getting when they purchase a brownie mix? A look at the ingredients listed on the label is actually rather heartening. Most of the basic mixes are little more than sugar, bleached flour, cocoa processed with alkali (that’s a standard Dutch-process cocoa), hydrogenated vegetable oil, salt, artificial flavor, baking soda and some form of starch. Nothing really scary. Then the “baker” adds water, an egg and oil (for which melted butter or margarine can be substituted).

Atlanta cooking teacher Shirley Corriher isn’t surprised that the box seems so benign. “Consumers don’t want additives,” says the biochemist, who is writing a book for William Morrow & Co. tentatively titled “Why Things Happen in Food.”

“In many cases,” she adds, “they have forced food companies to eliminate additives that have positive attributes. Manufacturers are scared to add anything.”

Mark McLellan, food technologist and chairman of the Institute of Food Science at Cornell University, agrees that product developers are trying to keep additives to a minimum: “People lose sight of the fact that the scientists who are behind the scenes are people. They look at the ingredients and select additives that are functional only. The goal is to deliver the best product to the customer. Also, additives cost money, and cost is always a concern. Why add anything you don’t need?”

For some, any additive is one too many. Marcy Goldman, a professional baker in Montreal, belongs to this group. “When I see ‘dehydrated hydrogenated oil’ on the ingredient list, I wonder what I’m giving my family,” she says.

Corriher says this a typical response. “Consumers see additives and get turned off. Hydrogenated oils contain fatty acids, which are known to raise cholesterol levels, but butter is known to have the same effect.” The cook in Corriher is quick to add: “Of course, nothing tastes better than butter, so I’d choose butter for the flavor.”

And consumers may be more willing to accept additives in certain kinds of products. “When people think of brownies, they’re thinking of something Grandma used to make, and they don’t want a lot of additives,” says Mark Schardt, associate nutritionist at the Center for Science in the Public Interest. “They seem to be willing to accept more additives in low-fat or fat-free brownies, where they are trading additives for something.”

Consumers also seem willing to accept additives in return for mixes that incorporate syrups and chips. Those special ingredients require additives if they are to withstand warehousing, high heat and humidity, McLellan explains.

What mix-makers may find in commercial mixes that they can’t find in cookbooks is a consistency that does not depend on skill. Mixes are so consistent that some home bakers use them as ingredients in other recipes.

Contestants in the Pillsbury Bake-Off can use brownie mixes as an ingredient, reports Marlene Johnson, director of product communications for Pillsbury. “The contestants think of it as chocolate flour.”

The Pillsbury Bake-Off isn’t the only place where bakers are fooling around with brownie mixes. Cathy Post, a systems manager from Beltsville, Md., has created her own special brownie recipe:

“I start from scratch, melting a stick of butter and two ounces of unsweetened chocolate. I take it off the fire, stir in one cup sugar, one teaspoon vanilla, two eggs and 3/4 cup flour, then I add a package of brownie mix and follow the directions on the package. I never make them any other way. They have exactly the fudgy texture I’m looking for.”

Sharon Tyler Herbst, author of the upcoming “Food Lover’s Guide to Chocolate and Vanilla” (Morrow, $18, to be published in May), has her own recommendations for doctoring brownie mix:

“I add things to brownie mixes. To deepen taste and color, I always have a jar of instant espresso and add a tablespoon; a tablespoon of cocoa makes them more chocolaty; soaked dried cherries are wonderful (especially soaked in liqueur); and to make magic with the chocolate, a couple teaspoons of pure vanilla extract.”

Even manufacturers of mixes have been fiddling around with them. Regular brownie mixes sit on supermarket shelves with premium mixes that boast chocolate chunks, chocolate chips, cheesecake swirls, dark chocolate, double fudge, low-fat, fat-free and organic.

Baking expert Jim Dodge, vice president of the New England Culinary Institute, won’t condemn brownie mixes outright. “I understand the ease of the mixes. If I were a parent with a couple of kids, I’d have a cupboard full of them. What concerns me more is if people never try to make things from a full recipe.”

But for many consumers, the mixes will more than suffice. They find them quick, easy and reliable. And time is at a premium for the core group of consumers who buy brownie mixes. As Pillsbury’s Johnson explains, “Females 35 to 45 years old in households with children are the primary purchasers.”

So brownies are the ‘90s-style indulgence for kids and their moms. The familiar brownies are getting fudgier and the varieties more numerous, but the one consistent trend is toward mixes. As Balzer observed in the NPD Group’s tracking of American eating patterns, “It’s the form of food that’s changing in America, not the food.”

ALL-AMERICAN BROWNIES

1/4 pound butter, cut into pieces, plus additional for pan

2 ounces unsweetened chocolate

1 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 large eggs

1/2 cup sifted flour

Pinch salt

2 ounces (generous 1/2 cup) walnuts, broken into medium-sized pieces

This one-pot recipe for brownies from Maida Heatter’s “Book of Great Chocolate Desserts” (Knopf, 1981) is so simple that you may never go back to mixes. The directions appear long, but that’s because Heatter doesn’t leave anything to chance.

Place 1/4 pound butter and chocolate in heavy 2- or 3-quart saucepan over lowest heat. Stir occasionally with rubber or wooden spatula until mixture is melted and smooth. Set aside to cool about 3 minutes. Stir in sugar and vanilla. Add eggs, 1 at time, stirring until smooth after each addition. Add flour and salt; stir until smooth. Mix in nuts.

Turn 8-inch square cake pan upside down. Tear off 12-inch square of aluminum foil, center it over inverted pan, fold down sides and corners, then remove foil and turn pan right-side up. Place formed foil in pan. Lightly butter bottom of foil and halfway up sides, using soft or melted butter spread with a pastry brush or crumpled wax paper.

Turn batter into prepared pan and smooth top. Bake at 350 degrees on rack placed in bottom third of oven until toothpick gently inserted in center comes out clean but not dry, 20 to 25 minutes. Do not over-bake. Cake should be soft and slightly moist.

Cool until pan reaches room temperature. Then cover with wire rack, invert and remove pan and aluminum foil. Bottom of cake should look slightly moist in center. Cover with another rack and invert again, leaving cake right-side up. (It will be about 3/4 inch thick.)

Transfer cake to cutting board. With long, thin, sharp knife cut into squares or oblongs. Cake may be chilled before cutting.

Wrap brownies in cellophane or wax paper or arrange on tray and cover with plastic wrap. Either way, do not let them dry out. Brownies may be frozen and served either at room temperature or frozen, directly from the freezer.

Makes 16 squares, or 12 to 24 bars.

Each square contains about:

163 calories, 2 grams protein, 18 grams carbohydrates, 10 grams fat, 42 mg cholesterol, 5 grams saturated fat, 23 mg sodium.

BECCA BROWNIES

6 tablespoons butter, plus additional for pan

8 ounces semisweet chocolate

3 eggs

3/4 cup flour

1/4 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder

1 cup sugar

1/8 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 cups coarsely chopped walnuts

4 ounces white chocolate, chopped into small chunks

These brownies, an adaptation of a recipe in Jim Dodge’s cookbook “Baking With Jim Dodge” (Simon & Schuster, 1991), are his latest favorite version. Moist and slightly chewy, they are named for his goddaughter, Rebecca Harlow, who rode her tricycle through the kitchen at least 20 times while he was working on them. They are very heavy on the nuts, but if that’s not your taste, omit them. Becca doesn’t like nuts either.

Melt 6 tablespoons butter in saucepan over low heat. Remove pan from heat. Cut semisweet chocolate into chunks and add to butter. Stir continuously with wooden spoon until smooth. (If you do not stir, chocolate may overheat from contact with pan.) Set aside.

Whisk eggs in large bowl. Mix in flour, cocoa, sugar and baking soda. Stir in melted chocolate, then nuts and white chocolate.

Pour batter into buttered 13x9-inch baking pan and smooth top with rubber spatula. Bake at 350 degrees on middle rack of oven until sides start to pull away from pan and knife inserted in center comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Cool completely on wire rack. Cut cooled brownie lengthwise into 7 (1 1/4-inch-wide) strips. Cut strips crosswise into 2 3/4-inch lengths. Carefully remove brownies from pan with spatula.

Wrap leftover brownies in plastic wrap and refrigerate.

Makes about 35 brownies.

Each brownie contains about:

139 calories, 2 grams protein, 15 grams carbohydrates, 9 grams fat, 24 mg cholesterol, 4 grams saturated fat, 16 mg sodium.

TO-DIE-FOR BROWNIES

3/4 cup butter, softened, plus additional for pan

2 cups brown sugar, packed

1 cup granulated sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon instant espresso powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

6 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled to room temperature

4 ounces semisweet chocolate, melted and cooled to room temperature

5 eggs

1 1/2 cups flour

2 cups coarsely chopped toasted pecans

These brownies from Sharon Tyler Herbst’s upcoming book, “The Food Lover’s Guide to Chocolate and Vanilla,” are for lovers of cake-like brownies.

Beat 3/4 cup butter, brown and granulated sugars, vanilla, espresso powder and salt in large mixing bowl until well combined. With mixer running at medium-low speed, gradually add unsweetened and semisweet melted chocolates, then eggs, 1 at time, beating well after each addition. Stir in flour, 1/2 cup at time. Stir in nuts. Spoon into greased 13x9-inch baking pan, smoothing top.

Bake at 350 degrees until toothpick inserted in center comes out almost clean, about 35 minutes. Do not over-bake. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Cut into 24 (about 2-inch) squares, making 6 cuts crosswise and 4 cuts lengthwise.

Makes 24 large brownies.

Each brownie contains about:

316 calories, 4 grams protein, 39 grams carbohydrates, 18 grams fat, 60 mg cholesterol, 7 grams saturated fat, 67 mg sodium.