My first thought would have been the eggs, too. Perhaps the heat thickened them a wee bit too much.

Maybe you mismeasured something or maybe you used something that wasn't the right ingredient thinking it was something else? Like you accidentally picked up the wrong thing...weren't wearing your glasses...HAHA!

Ugh...the darn science of baking! It's especially irritating when you've used the recipe a zillion times before. Maybe try googling "troubleshooting brownies" to see if that can shed any light. I think the shiny/crackled top has something to do with eggs and sugar interacting. Again, it's that baking science thing that gets confusing. :-/

For a change, I did a mis en place, so I don’t think I got the wrong ingredient. I even went back and checked the sugar canister and the flour canisters to make sure they contained sugar and flour. And I was wearing my glasses! ;-)

I’m wanting to put all the blame on the generic store-brand chocolate morsels. I live in a small town and my brand choices are limited to Ghiradelli or Nestle. I’ve picked up some Nestle, which I’ve used before. I think I’ll remake them and see what happens.

Chloe, this morning I was googling to see if the percentage of cacao were at fault. Somewhere I read that the shiny, cracked surface comes from the chocolate chips.

The shiny surface is actually a thin layer of meringue that forms when the eggs are beaten into the creamed butter and sugar. You can increase the likelihood of this occurring if you beat the mixture longer after adding the eggs but before adding any the ingredients.

bbstx, this link might help as far as the shiny surface is concerned. I think you're fine using Ghirardelli or Nestle chips.

https://blog.kingarthurflour.com/2015/05/31/make-brownies-shiny-crust/

Are you absolutely certain you added the eggs? Dry and crumbly and no sheen sound like the eggs were overlooked or somehow got damaged. You did say you were distracted. Did you add the sugar first to the hot butter/chocolate (to help cool them down)? Perhaps the mixture was too hot after all and the eggs got cooked/scrambled by adding them into the hot butter/chocolate.

I had my tried and true cookie recipe fail just a couple of days ago! Seemed as if I was so careful - measuring and mixing and reading and wearing my glasses!

Oh too bad! I hate to waste chocolate = (

Might it have been too much flour?

What about the baking time and temperature?

I’m wanting to put all the blame on the generic store-brand chocolate morsels.

I'm wondering about that, too. A lot of the lower-end chocolate chips now are mostly just hardened oils, now that trans fats are Bad.

I’m wanting to put all the blame on the generic store-brand chocolate morsels.

But per the recipe, the chocolate morsels are just sitting in the batter, as an add-in, dusted with flour. It's not like some recipes, where you melt them as part of the base and they are integral to the batter. My other concern would be the TJ's chocolate bar, which is actually melted with the butter.

Gooster, yes, I was distracted. I really dislike having anyone in my kitchen when I’m trying to cook. Yesterday there were 8 adults and 2 babies in the kitchen while I was trying to get brunch on the table! I don’t draw energy from chaos.

When I poured the batter into the pan (the same pan I always use, so we can eliminate that variable), it didn’t look quite right so I started backtracking to make sure everything had been added. I still had the egg shells sitting on the counter, so I know I added 4 of them.

Per the recipe instructions, I combined the sugar and eggs and vanilla and beat them together. Then poured in the melted butter and chocolate. I added the flour about 1/3 of a cup at a time. When it was blended in, I folded in the chocolate chips by hand (I never add the nuts and I didn’t this time either).

Carolb, I have no distinct recollection of the baking temp. Time may have run a little long, but I was testing them from the 30 minute mark onward.

I’m going to remake the recipe this afternoon, although I hate to have a pan of brownies sitting around with just me and DH at home. Guess I’ll just have to make the sacrifice in the name of baking science. :-))))

Chloe, the picture accompanying the article shows precisely what mine looked like - dull and flat!!! It usually looks like the one on the left. And the answer is CHOCOLATE CHIPS!!

bbstx, let us know how the remake goes. Heaven knows I've made my share of those baking science sacrifices!

So your thought about the chocolate chips could be right! Have you used the same ones before though? Oh, I think you said your husband picked up the store brand.

The last time something similar happened to me was with my pumpkin bars...something I've made a bazillion times. When I opened the oven to take them out, the batter still looked wet and kind of foamy. What?!?!? However, in that case, it didn't take long for me to realize I'd forgotten the baking soda. I just went ahead and remade them. What a waste!

If the friend had to spit them out because it was so bad...it just seems like something was bad. Maybe you accidentally used 1 cup of sugar and 2 cups of flour instead of vice versa? But, those generic chocolate chips are pretty nasty and fake tasting.

Chloe, I generally do not use the store-brand generic products. I have never used those chocolate chips before and I never would have bought them.

AR, anything is possible, but I don’t think I transposed the sugar and flour. I remember having to refill the canister for the second cup of sugar. I also remember re-checking how many grams 1 cup of flour weighs (per the King Arthur Flour site, 1 cup of AP flour weighs 120 grams. https://www.kingarthurflour.com/learn/ingredient-weight-chart.html).

Exactly what I was after!! It has a shiny, crinkly top and a perfect, fudgy texture. Conclusion: It was the cheap store-brand chocolate chips that caused my epic fail!!

I remember once adding in too much baking soda and the brownies were inedible.

Looking good!!!

I'm coming to this after the fact, and I'm impressed by your detective skills, and your new proper tray of brownies, but I wanted to say that my first thought was it was the wrong kind of sugar, but I know that you know to use cane sugar, and then you found that fail article. So what I wonder is whether they use some obnoxious sugar in the off brand chocolate chips and was it that which polluted the first batch so badly? Or something about the fat in the yucky chocolate? Store label doesn't have to be bad, but it could be awful. And did you taste a chip?

Because I get it about the dullness of the surface, but I can make perfectly good fudge brownies that your neighbor would be happy to eat without any chocolate chips at all! I'm not talking about the glossy top, which I've only gotten from fudge brownies. Ordinary chocolate brownies, however, flaky top requiring a bit of frosting and all, are still nice to eat, not spit out. So I'm really curious...

plllog, I tasted a pinch of the store brand chips before I made the first batch. They didn’t taste chocolately at all and had an odd (waxy yet chalky) mouth-feel. I should have known better, but I was in a hurry knowing that I was going to have tons of company.

The ingredients in the cheap store brand are Sugar, Unsweetened Chocolate, Cocoa Butter, Milkfat, Soy Lecithin, Vanilla Extract,

The ingredients in Nestle are Sugar, Chocolate, Milkfat, Cocoa Butter, Soy Lecithin, Natural Flavors.

The ingredients look similar, but it doesn’t taste at all the same - NOT. AT. ALL!!

The generic are now in the trash!

eld, sorry about your cheesecake, but at least it was edible! And you solved you mystery.

My knowledge of food science fails at this point. Waxy and chalky does sound like it infected that dish of brownies!

This is mystifying to me. I never put choc chips in brownies and I get a shiny, crackly top on them with the recipe I use...One Bowl Brownies http://www.kraftcanada.com/recipes/bakers-one-bowl-brownies-86277

I also get the shiny crackly top with no chocolate chips.

But CA Kate- baking soda??? I’ve never seen a brownie recipe with baking soda in it.

Colleenoz, FWIW, I found this recipe using baking soda in brownies. They are called Hershey’s Brownies https://www.geniuskitchen.com/recipe/hersheys-fudgy-brownies-227077. However, a quick perusal of the Hershey’s website shows their recipes use baking powder, not baking soda. https://www.hersheys.com/kitchens/en_us/search.html?q=Brownies&sp_cs=UTF-8&sp_k=C_Kitchens

I think the main reason my recipe has chocolate chips is because it is called “Double Chocolate Brownies.” I never knew they might be there to make a shiny top.

David Lebovitz’s Gluten-Free Brownies is the only other brownie recipe I make and I cannot tell you if the top is shiny or not. If you bake for someone who is GF, I highly recommend this recipe. Follow it to the letter!!!! https://www.davidlebovitz.com/gluten-free-brownies-recipe-chocolate/

I think the glossy top requires a certain fat content. It happens with moister brownies. There are cakier brownies which are nice enough to eat but have a drier more open crumb which don't have it.

I will bet money you forgot the sugar....that would account for the nasty spit it out taste....and cheap faux chocolate didn't help. But you could have omitted the chocolate chips altogether and you would have still had decant brownies...if you had added sugar.