Are These 100-hour Brownies Worth Making?
For some reason, I seem to enjoy giving myself cooking/baking projects that take an insane amount of time to make, but hopefully this one will lead to equally delicious results.
Today, I will be re-creating Alvin Zhou’s 100-hour brownies that he made for his YouTube channel. You can check out the video with the link below, but the sum is that these brownies start with a relatively easy brownie batter that features brown butter, whipped eggs, and LOTS of chocolate, but what makes them unique is the fact that the brownie batter rests in the fridge for 3 days before baking and then another day afterwards, supposedly resulting in very flavorful, fudgy brownies.
I have never thought to rest brownie batter, but I suppose we already do it with cookie dough to get a soft, dense texture. Why wouldn’t the same work for brownies? I suppose there’s nothing to it but to get to it!
Alvin Zhou’s 100-Hour Brownies
Makes 10-12 brownies
(As with the 100 hour tiramisu, Alvin didn’t really drop a recipe for these brownies so I’m basing this on what I saw him use in the video he made.)
2 sticks of unsalted butter
2 tablespoons of instant espresso powder, divided
4 eggs
2 tablespoons of vanilla paste
1 1/2 cups of sugar
1 cup of cocoa powder, Dutch processed is preferred
1 1/2 teaspoons of salt
1 cup of bittersweet chocolate chips, melted
2 cups of flour
4 bars (4-ounces each) of chocolate. (bittersweet, semisweet, milk, or, even better, a mix!)
Step 1: Make the brown butter
(If you have never tried brown butter in brownies before, then you are seriously missing out. The toasty flavors bring out the chocolate’s flavor really well.)
Dump the butter into a medium frying pan, then place the pan over medium heat (Stainless is preferred as you can see the butter browning a lot easier that nonstick). Melt and cook the butter for about 5-7 minutes, stirring frequently, until the butter smells toasty and you can see brown specs throughout.
Add 1 tablespoon of the espresso powder, then stir until dissolved. Turn off the heat, then add 1-2 ice cubes to start cooling the butter and keeping it from going too dark and stir until the ice has melted. Your butter will get mad and start bubbling at you, but that’s normal. Set the brown butter aside to cool slightly.
(Edit: I suggest doing this in a wider pan than what I used because the butter does foam up after the ice cube is added and it nearly spilled all over my stovetop)
Step 2: Beat the eggs
Crack the eggs into a large bowl, then add the vanilla paste and sugar. With an electric beater, beat the eggs starting on low and gradually increasing the speed every minute or so until the eggs are pale, thick, and ribbony.
(Doing this will add tons of air to your brownie batter to make them incredibly light but also fudgy.)
Sift the cocoa powder, remaining tablespoon of espresso powder, and salt into the beaten eggs, then gently fold to combine.
Step 3: Add Remaining Ingredients
Pour the cooled brown butter into the egg mixture, then fold to combine. Add the melted chocolate, then again, gently fold to combine. Sift the flour into the batter, then fold until you get a thick, smooth batter.
(In case you were worried there wasn’t enough chocolate in these brownies…)
Cut the chocolate bars into large chunks, I like doing this in a crisscross pattern, resist the urge to eat all of that chocolate that’s on the board, then add about 3/4 of those chunks to the batter and fold to combine.
Dump the batter into a 9x13 baking pan, greased and lined with parchment paper, then spread into an even layer. Top with the remaining chocolate, then cover the whole tray with plastic wrap and let the batter chill for 3 whole days so all of the flavors can get to know each other. Sure, you could bake the brownies right away, but I did promise 100 hours.
(3 days later…)
Step 4: Bake
Take your brownie batter out of the fridge and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Once the oven is hot, bake the brownies for 25 minutes, or until the edges are firm but the center is still very soft.
Say, you might want to make sure you have some room in your freezer. You’ll see why in a second.
Here’s an unusual part that seems to be the trick to ultra-soft brownies. As soon as the brownies come out of the oven, wrap the tray in foil, be careful cause it’s very hot, and place the whole tray into the freezer. That’s right, freezing the hot brownies will trap the moisture inside the brownies, so they’ll stay nice and moist a lot longer.
After 30 minutes, transfer to the fridge and let the brownies chill overnight. By some point the next day, the 100 hours will be complete and you can slice and serve the brownies as you wish. I do recommend letting the brownies come up to room temperature before serving as they’ll be a bit softer and easier to slice.
Ok, it is time for the verdict, were these 100-hour brownies worth making?
First off, the brownies as a whole were absolutely phenomenal, there is so much deep chocolate flavor that it’s like Willy Wonka set up his factory in my mouth, backed up by the espresso and brown butter for extra flavor, and that technique with freezing the hot brownies did seem to help make them incredibly moist while maintaining that dense, chewy, fudgy texture that good brownies have to have, I think this will become my new brownie recipe.
As for the wait…while it was cool having the anticipation of waiting for these brownies…I don’t think I’ll have the patience to wait for them again. If I do make these again, I think I will let the batter rest but perhaps just for an hour before baking like I do when I make chocolate chip cookies.
Well, if you feel up to trying out these 100-hour brownies themselves or just want to try out the recipe minus all of that extra time, please let me know how it went.
