Reply to How is Ghirardelli brownie mix so cheap? Am I missing something?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I make brownies from scratch all of the time and the ingredients are unbleached flour, eggs, vanilla, butter, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and unsweetened baking chocolate. [/quote]

Same, except I use Dutch cocoa powder, no baking power or soda. I melt the butter first in a pot then add in the cocoa powder, then the eggs and vanilla, then stir in the flour and salt.  It couldn’t be easier.  [/quote]

Ah but it could - just open a box of Ghiradelli, put in one egg, 1/4 cup water, 1/3 cup oil and go.  Much easier.

I'm a baker...I have some cakes that are brownie like and are better then Ghiradelli double chocolate but no brownies from scratch that are. But, I haven't tried THAT hard.

On the other hand, I spent a few years trying to find a white cake recipe that was better then a Cake Doctor one based on a mix - and I couldn't.  The consistency of Betty Crocker White cake mix is unparalleled lightness.  And yes, multiple recipes, multiple flour types, shifting, creaming, etc.  No scratch white layer cake can match it.  [/quote]

I don't see much difference in how easy either of the recipes are above. 6 ingredients vs. 3? Both made in one pot/bowl? Meh. Plus you don't need the salt in homemade brownies, so it's really 5 ingredients vs. 3.

The thing I don't like about box brownies or cakes is the flavor. Sorry, but I can always tell something is out of the box because the flavor is off--maybe because of the oil? I grant you that cakes are fussy and getting the perfect rise and crumb is tricky with cakes made from scratch. But the sacrifice of flavor by using a cake mix (or brownie) just isn't worth it to me. Butter always brings out flavor in a way that oil does not -- unless it's an olive oil cake, but that's a whole different thing (try this! https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/olive-oil-cake).  I absolutely believe it that you and others can't tell the difference in flavor, but I and others sure can. So, not for me.

My go-to brownie recipes are the Baker's one bowl or the Katherine Hepburn brownies, and when I want to get fancy I use an amazing recipe the Washington Post published many years ago. I don't even know if it's online, I cut it out and transferred it into my recipe book way back when it was published. It's more complicated than most recipes and uses both cocoa and bar chocolate, but man is it worth the extra effort.[/quote]

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