The Perfect Brownie Pan “bakes each piece separately so they are flakey and crispy on the outside, but rich and gooey on the inside,” or so the ad claims. The brownies baked by Consumer Reports’ testers were gooey all right—gooey as in underdone. The news was better for the brownie mixes we tested. Two were excellent and three were CR Best Buys.

The winners of our brownie taste tests were Trader Joe’s Brownie Truffle and Barefoot Contessa Outrageous, the only mixes in our tests that come with semisweet chocolate chips and call for butter instead of oil. The brownies were chewy and dense, with complex, intense chocolate flavor and a freshly baked impression. Trader Joe’s mix costs $2.99 per package and the Barefoot Contessa’s is $10. And with suggested serving sizes that are twice as large as the other brownie mixes with the calories to match—374 for a 2.3-ounce serving—the brownies are outrageous indeed.

To test the brownie pan, we used Betty Crocker Fudge mix, one of the three Best Buys. (The other two are Duncan Hines Chewy Fudge and Market Pantry Fudge from Target.) We baked the Betty Crocker brownies four different ways: in an unlined, unsupported Perfect Brownie pan; in the pan lined with foil; in the pan on a baking sheet; and, as a control, in a regular 9×13-inch pan.

Our experience was not perfect. Our trained taste testers found that brownies baked in a regular pan had better texture and flavor than the Perfect Brownies, which were all underdone to varying degrees, though we baked them two to nine minutes longer than with the regular pan.

Similar Posts:

Share

| Tags: Brownie, Brownie Pan’

Leave a Reply

<