[2 - 2] there are a few culinary rivalries as a
[2 - 4] long-standing that's heartily thought
[4 - 6] and as consequential to the very fabric
[6 - 9] of american cooking as brownie versus
[11 - 13] blondie all right so i know that's not
[13 - 14] all right so i know that's not technically true i know a lot of you
[14 - 15] were sitting there thinking what's
[15 - 18] eating dan's brain like from the inside
[18 - 20] out the dude's lost it brownies contain
[20 - 22] chocolate chocolate tastes like magic
[22 - 25] brownies win episode's over next and
[25 - 27] look i'm a realist i understand that
[27 - 29] when the credits roll for this episode
[29 - 30] many of you will still think i have a
[30 - 33] brain parasite and brownies win but
[34 - 38] maybe just maybe
[44 - 44] now i'm not going to start this off by
[44 - 46] saying that blondes have more fun
[46 - 47] because well i'm not a blunt and i don't
[47 - 49] want that to be the case also we're here
[49 - 52] to talk about bates goods not hair today
[52 - 53] if you clicked on this video because you
[53 - 55] thought it was a hair tutorial you're
[55 - 58] going to be pretty disappointed
[58 - 59] guess you could hang around to the end
[60 - 62] maybe i'll show you
[62 - 65] how i kind of make this happen
[65 - 67] though the origins of both are a little
[67 - 68] bit murky there's evidence that suggests
[68 - 70] that the first brownie was actually drum
[72 - 74] a blondie it's true one of the first
[74 - 76] recipes for a confection dubbed a
[76 - 79] brownie appeared in 1896 in fannie
[79 - 81] farber's boston cooking school cookbook
[81 - 83] and it was individual cakes flavored
[83 - 85] with molasses baked in shallow tins this
[85 - 87] was followed by a new version of the
[87 - 89] recipe calling for chocolate in the 1906
[89 - 90] edition are you keeping these dates
[90 - 92] straight over time the name for the
[92 - 94] molasses brownies morphed into blonde
[94 - 96] brownies which is confusing then
[96 - 98] butterscotch brownies which is delicious
[98 - 100] and then finally decades later some say
[100 - 103] as late as the 1980s simply blondies
[103 - 105] which helps answer the age-old question
[105 - 107] of which came first blondie the band or
[107 - 109] blondie the bars it's technically bonded
[109 - 112] to the band 1974. okay great so we know
[112 - 114] some of our blondie history but a big
[114 - 116] question still remains and that is what
[116 - 118] exactly is a blondie in 2021 when i
[118 - 120] travel this great nation of ours and
[120 - 122] talk to folks about blondie's i often
[122 - 124] hear two commonly held beliefs about
[124 - 126] them the first blondies are simply
[126 - 128] brownies without the chocolate and the
[128 - 130] second blondies are just chocolate chip
[130 - 132] cookies baked in bar form are either of
[132 - 134] these theories true cook's illustrated
[134 - 136] senior editor annie potito decided to
[136 - 137] make a batch of each and put it to the
[137 - 140] test first up theory one a blondie is
[140 - 141] just a brownie without chocolate here
[142 - 144] i've got one batch of brownies sans
[144 - 146] chocolate let's cut a square and check
[146 - 148] it out okay so first off right off the
[148 - 150] bat i'm seeing some serious greasiness
[150 - 152] why would that be that we don't talk
[152 - 153] about it that much cocoa powder is
[153 - 155] actually pretty high in starch cocoa
[155 - 157] powder's dirty little secret without
[157 - 158] that additional starch in the mix
[158 - 160] there's not enough to bind up all of the
[160 - 161] butter in the recipe
[161 - 164] okay let's take a taste
[169 - 169] that's uh that's sweet without the
[169 - 170] bitterness and additional fat that we
[170 - 171] get from the chocolate the sugar in the
[172 - 175] recipe is just overpowering this is
[175 - 177] definitely not how you blondie
[177 - 179] okay theory two a blondie is a chocolate
[179 - 181] chip cookie just baked in a big pan
[181 - 183] again let's cut a square and check it
[184 - 186] out actually this looks pretty good to me
[186 - 187] actually this looks pretty good to me let's take a bite
[189 - 191] [Music] okay so it's dry
[191 - 193] okay so it's dry it's tough and it lacks a lot of good
[195 - 197] these are not things i usually say about
[197 - 199] chocolate chip cookies here's the thing
[199 - 200] when we make chocolate chip cookies we
[200 - 202] use a moderately hot oven and we scoop
[202 - 204] maybe two to three tablespoons of dough
[204 - 206] per cookie right and then we pull them
[206 - 209] from the oven before they're fully baked
[209 - 211] all that surface area in the hot oven
[211 - 213] means we get tons of great overall
[213 - 214] browning and a big kick in the flavor
[214 - 216] department and that under baking keeps
[216 - 218] the cookies moist and tender baked as a
[218 - 221] bar cookie we lose so much and we'll
[221 - 222] never get it back
[222 - 225] this is also not how you blondie so how
[225 - 227] do you blondie let's go to the kitchen
[229 - 231] first we brown some butter 12
[231 - 234] tablespoons to be exact swirling and
[234 - 236] stirring in a shiny skillet like this
[236 - 237] makes it really easy to judge when the
[238 - 240] butter is browned and not burnt brown
[240 - 241] butter one of the poster children of the
[241 - 244] mayard reaction will add loads of
[244 - 246] complexity and depth and nuttiness that
[246 - 248] is often sorely lacking in many blondie
[248 - 250] recipes to that we'll add brown sugar
[250 - 252] which gets its color and flavor from
[252 - 254] molasses in order to add lots of
[254 - 256] butterscotch flavor
[256 - 257] but we aren't using all sugar in this
[257 - 259] recipe most blondie recipes are a little
[259 - 261] bit too sweet so we're actually going to
[261 - 263] swap in a portion of corn syrup corn
[263 - 265] syrup adds lots of moisture like sugar
[265 - 267] but it's only about a third as sweet
[267 - 268] we've also got eggs and vanilla hanging
[268 - 270] out with our wet ingredients we'll stir
[270 - 272] that into our simple dry ingredients of
[272 - 274] flour salt and baking powder then we'll
[274 - 277] add some pecans and milk chocolate chips
[277 - 278] when annie created this recipe she found
[278 - 280] that dark chocolate chips competed and
[280 - 283] overpowered that brown buttery goodness
[283 - 285] so she got rid of them which is great by
[285 - 287] me after all milk chocolate is the best
[293 - 293] i'll take your responses to that
[294 - 296] statement in the comments section below the video
[296 - 298] in the comments section below the video then we just sprinkle on big flake sea
[298 - 300] salt which will add pops of salty
[300 - 302] goodness throughout when we bake
[303 - 305] and just look at this gorgeous golden
[305 - 308] just look at this gorgeous golden landscape of blondie goodness
[308 - 309] now because we're doing science here i
[309 - 311] also have a pan of cook's illustrated
[311 - 313] deputy food editor andrea geary's chewy
[313 - 315] brownies some quick stats on these
[315 - 317] beauties they contain both cocoa powder
[317 - 319] and bar chocolate for complex chocolate
[319 - 321] flavor they have a dialed in ratio of
[321 - 322] saturated unsaturated fat which
[322 - 324] contributes to a chewy texture they've
[324 - 326] got extra egg yolks for richness and
[326 - 328] espresso powder and vanilla to amp up
[328 - 330] chocolate flavor let's start with the
[337 - 337] i've got great chew rich chocolate
[337 - 338] flavor there's a little hint of
[338 - 340] fudginess yeah i feel like this is like
[340 - 342] the chew of the boxed ones that i grew
[342 - 344] up on but with actual rich chocolate
[344 - 346] flavor okay now time for a bite of the
[351 - 351] that brown sugar and that brown butter
[351 - 354] combined for perfect butterscotch flavor
[354 - 355] the sweetness is in shack and those
[355 - 357] little pops of salt from the flake sea
[357 - 359] salt give me that sweet salty balance
[359 - 362] that i love i think i need another bite
[362 - 364] that is so good you know it's like the
[364 - 366] best chocolate chip cookie met the best
[366 - 368] butterscotch candy and they like rent a
[368 - 370] little row boat and like rode around a
[370 - 372] lake filled with butterscotch pudding
[372 - 373] it was like you know the first good
[374 - 375] spring day where it feels like nice even
[375 - 377] in the shade you know what i mean
[377 - 379] ah it gives you a chance to just like
[379 - 380] forget everything that you went through
[380 - 381] that past winter
[381 - 383] now and you forget the fact that yeah a
[383 - 385] lot of people forgot your birthday this
[385 - 387] year and you only own like four shirts
[387 - 389] and slightly different shades of blue
[389 - 390] and never really learned how to make
[390 - 392] your own bed and just let all that go
[392 - 395] and you feel i don't know
[395 - 401] you just feel good you know
[404 - 404] sorry what are we talking about oh right
[404 - 406] this is how to eat
[406 - 410] is how to eat blondies and brownies
[412 - 412] so what i do is you know as soon as i
[412 - 413] get out of the shower and kind of you
[413 - 415] know towel off and dry it i'll get a
[415 - 417] little bit of the hair product and make
[418 - 419] this part here uh and if it's totally
[419 - 421] out of control i'll reach for
[421 - 423] comb like this so you can comb and kind
[423 - 425] of do it that way
[425 - 426] so yeah that's kind of that's how i do
[427 - 429] now if you didn't come here for the hair
[429 - 431] tutorial i bet you came here for the
[431 - 433] blondies maybe the brownies the good
[433 - 435] news is i have links to both of them
[435 - 436] right below the video
[436 - 437] now while you're hanging out down there
[437 - 439] in the video nether regions do be sure
[440 - 441] to hit that subscribe button hit that
[441 - 446] like button and i will see you next time