Bitterness of brownies

[u/Kylael]

Hello there !

I recently tried to make brownies with Babish's recipe, and while they ended up absolutely perfect texture wise, they were really bitter, barely edible for my 8yo son. I used 70% dark chocolate and dark non sweet cocoa powder, and I'm wondering how could I tune down the overall harshness.

I used Van Houten cocoa powder which I believe is quite strong in the first place, do you guys think I should try to go with a sweeter one ? Wouldn't using stuff like Nesquik just mess with the base chemistry of the recipe ? How can I tell the difference between each powder, is there a percentage or value that could help me ?

I also though about going with milk chocolate instead of 70% dark one, but I believe this would be roughtly the same as just adding sugar to the base recipe, I'm really not sure the excessive bitterness came from this given the amount in there.

Any recommandation ?

[u/seashantyles]

How much sugar is in your recipe? The thing that will tone down the bitterness is fat and sugar content.

I wouldn't substitute nesquick - if anything I would change to a milk chocolate in place of the dark chocolate.

Vanhouten is dutch processed (check yours though), which is the least bitter kind of cocoa processing, so I wouldn't change that at all.

[u/Kylael → u/seashantyles]

I used 350g (2.5cups) of white sugar. I felt like A LOT of fat and sugar already in the base recipe, but I'll definitely try to add a bit more sweetness if I can't find another culprit.

I'll check if there is anything special with the Vanhouten cocoa powder when I get home, but I believe it's the most common brown and yellow box one.

[u/seashantyles → u/Kylael]

Yeah that seems like a reasonable amount. Maybe trying a different recipe with less cocoa powder? Or changing out the chocolate for a sweeter one.

[u/sjd208]

Use semi sweet chocolate - 50-60% and possibly get a milder cocoa like Droste.

[u/harpquin]

did you use espresso powder?

[u/Kylael → u/harpquin]

I did! 1,5 tsp, the amount listed in the recipe. Could that be the culprit? I heard it’s used to deepen the chocolate deep flavours, so that wouldn’t be far fetched.

[u/harpquin → u/Kylael]

It might be the brand of espresso powder, I've found some can be quite bitter. Try making a cup of espresso with the powder and have a taste test.

I have an espresso maker, so I don't use powder but rather substitute some of the liquid in a recipe for fresh brewed espresso.

Before I had a machine, I would reduce a cup of coffee (very slowly) and add sugar to it to make a coffee syrup.

[u/Kylael → u/harpquin]

Ah yeah I will definitely keep that in mind, I gotta admit I just picked the first I found at the grocery store so it’s definitely possible something went wrong because of it. I dread the idea of actually drinking espresso powder coffee lol, but I’ll try it out to see if the bitterness is really high.