“Why buy brownies?” people ask “Can't you just make them yourself?” We suppose you could make them yourself but there are a host of reasons to have brownies from Auntie Pearl's Pantry. The reasons that stand out in our mind are taste, skill, and equipment.
Brownies from Auntie Pearl's Pantry taste better than any other brownie out there. We have a tried and true family recipe that has delighted thousands of children (and not a few adults) over many years. People use commercial brownie mixes from the grocery store, which are quick and easy, but let's look at what's inside a popular mix.
“Sugar, Enriched Flour Bleached, Cocoa Processed with Alkali, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean and/or Cottonseed Oil, Corn Starch, Salt, Dicalcium Phosphate, Artificial Flavor, Gellan Gum, Egg, Nonfat Milk, Soy Flour”
No butter used, just “partially hydrogenated soybean and/or cottonseed oil”. We've never liked the taste of Dicalcium Phosphate. We don't have a bottle of “Artificial Brownie Flavor” in our kitchen, and honestly, we've never seen one. We're kitchen professionals but we've also never seen Gellan Gum in the supermarket.
Baking brownies takes skill. Professional bakers and chefs always say “You have to make a dish at least 100 times to begin to understand it.” We hit Brownie Batch #100 years ago and we have to agree with our colleagues. Batch #100 was okay. What we learned in making batches and batches of brownies were the nuances of baking brownies. The best way to melt butter and chocolate together and not get any steam in the bowl (steam is bad); how fast to fold the chocolate mixture; do we add the flour all at once or do we alternate with the chocolate; all these subtleties were learned by baking batch after batch of brownies. Not cakes, cookies, pies, and custard – just brownies.
Baking brownies is an expensive undertaking. Butter, eggs, flour, and vanilla is not all that expensive. Well, vanilla is real expensive and so is good chocolate, but we digress. What is expensive about making brownies is the gear. Do you have a good sized double boiler? A thick glass sheet pan? A long handled silicone spatula? Those three items alone can cost you as much as $75.
We have all the right gear, have made thousands of batches, and have a recipe that has been delighting generations. Try brownies from Auntie Pearl's Pantry and see what difference taste can make.
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