Make Brownies Taste Sweeter And Richer With A Pinch Of This Pantry Spice

It seems as though bakers have been looking for ways to improve their brownies for as long as folks have been making them. Not that the alternately chewy, cakey, fudgey squares need any further ado, but sometimes it's just too hard to stop pursuing more and more of a good thing. So the list of potential brownie mix-ins and upgrades can get pretty elaborate, sometimes even to the point where the otherwise simple, handheld dessert becomes unrecognizable. But a few shakes of one popular pantry staple will make a notable difference without requiring even half the pomp and circumstance: nutmeg.

Nutmeg is an incredibly versatile spice that you're as likely to see in savory preparations as you are in sweet ones. The seed-derived powder that you probably have kicking around your cabinet is warm and woodsy with its own lightly confectionary quality, like the culinary equivalent of a fireside cuddle. When paired with the brownie's assertive chocolate, that warmth can seem to smooth any of the cocoa's lingering bitter notes, while also balancing the very sugar that would have done the same, giving it all a richness absent any artificial candy-like cloying. It just lets the chocolate sing without seeming like something that came out of a vending machine, and gives the treat a whisper of sophisticated depth. Not bad for something that you might have forgotten about until next eggnog season.

Brownie batter is great at absorbing and obscuring almost anything you want to toss into it. That can make it tempting to keep piling in the ingredients. But you want the nutmeg to enhance your brownies, not totally transform them. Being that you really should not taste brownie batter due to its potentially dangerous raw flour and eggs, you can never really know how a new addition will perform until the whole darn pan is finished. So you want to start on the lighter side by stirring in up to about a ½ teaspoon of nutmeg to avoid overdoing it. Keep in mind, a small amount of nutmeg can go a long way.

Should you wish to experiment with a little more or less of the spice, you can also divide your brownie batter into separate bowls and eventually tins. Once all of your ingredients are combined except the nutmeg, pour half of the batter into a second vessel. A food scale will help you do this most accurately. Then add the nutmeg proportions of your desire to each bowl before you remove to something like a couple of 9-inch square tins versus the larger dish you'd normally use, and you'll have a terrific sense of nutmeg's impact in practically no time.