A Pastry Chef’s Yearlong Journey to Find the World’s Best Brownie

When it comes to investigative journalism, is there anything better than finding out that a certified pastry chef has been on a yearlong journey to determine the best brownie recipe in existence? I think not.

Meet Kathleen Meisinger, who has been video journaling her extremely precise testing of 20 different brownie recipes for the last 12 months. Her goal is exacting yet simple. She just wants to find “a fudgy brownie that stays moist, has a deep chocolatey flavor and a shiny, crackly crust.” How easy is that, right?

Actually, not easy at all. This labor of intense brownie love was methodically carried out by baking each recipe with the exact same amount of batter (450 grams), in the same-size pan, for nearly the same amount of time. The ingredients and method varied by recipe, of course, but every other control was extremely, well, controlled.

Finally, after months and months of recipe testing and tasting, Kathleen recently announced the winner on her popular TikTok channel @thepracticeofpastry. The Outrageous Brownie, created by Food Network’s own Ina Garten, was declared the winner.

Ina’s recipe was originally published in her very first cookbook, 1999's The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook, making this recipe a fan favorite for more than a quarter of a century. The Outrageous Brownie has nearly 900 five-star reviews, and many attribute this to Ina’s secret ingredient, instant coffee, for its depth of flavor. Her baking method, which is to bake these in a sheet pan instead of in a deeper pan, is also a little unconventional but yields that "shiny, crackly crust" that Kathleen was looking for. And, finally, the small amount of flour (only 1¼ cups for 20 large brownies) is what gives these brownies that fudgy, moist consistency.

In case you’re keeping score, let’s break this down Kathleen style:

• Fudgy brownie that stays moist? Check.
• Deep, chocolatey flavor? Check.
• Shiny, crackly crust? Check.

This is likely why these brownies, originally introduced at Ina’s namesake store in the Hamptons, The Barefoot Contessa, were known to sell out in mere minutes despite a thousand of them being made a week.

To make Ina’s Outrageous Brownies at home, you don’t need any fancy equipment, but you will need a lot of chocolate. Six ounces of unsweetened chocolate, 1 pound of semisweet chocolate and 12 ounces of chocolate chips, to be exact. And, as previously mentioned, Ina’s not-so-secret ingredient, instant coffee, is a must. “Chocolate is really enhanced by the flavor of coffee. Not prepared coffee but instant coffee granules,” Ina says.

Another tip is after pouring the batter, "rap" the pan against the baking rack when the brownies are halfway done baking. According to Ina, “Air builds up between the brownies and the pan,” and by rapping the pan as she instructs, “it just releases all that air,” which results in a fudgier consistency.

Of course, we’re not telling Kathleen (or the dozens and dozens of reviewers) anything she doesn’t already know. As she announced on her TikTok channel, the Outrageous Brownie is the No. 1 pick because it has “the best crust, texture and crumb of all the brownies.” How easy is that, indeed.