Hi friends, hope you all had a wonderful summer. I'm back from India after almost 2 months of vacation. We went to celebrate the little one's first birthday. Fortunately everything went on very smoothly this time unlike the last visit where my eldest fell sick and it was very scary especially with the swine flu scare at that time. After this visit my eldest has picked up a lot of Tamil and these days he is easily switching between Telugu and Tamil. Initially I had planned to post recipes from there regularly but with a busy schedule I wasn't able to do that even though I had a couple of recipes lined up.
I baked these brownies long back for a get together here in Canada. I bought the brownie mix in Costco. It's the huge pack. The instructions in the package were given for two 9x13 inch pan and three 8 inch pans. Since I wanted lot more brownies I used a bigger pan which I got from a restaurant supply store.
My very first attempt to bake brownies during the initial days of starting this blog was using a brownie mix. I used flax egg as egg substitute for that brownie mix brownies recipe. So for this recipe I wanted to try a different egg substitute. I have had success using yogurt as egg substitute in cake mixes to make perfect eggless cakes hence decided to use yogurt while baking these brownies.
Recipe
Big Batch Brownies
Ingredients
- 4 Pouches Ghirardelli Brownie Mix
- 1 And ⅓ Cups Water
- 1 Cup Vegetable Oil
- 1 Cup Yogurt (¼ cup for each egg to be replaced)
- 1 Tablespoon Vanilla Extract
- 2 Cups Chopped Walnuts
Instructions
- Preheat the oven at 325F/160C for 15 minutes. Line the baking sheet with aluminum foil (leaving enough sheet around the edges so that you can lift it off easily once the brownie is cooled enough) and grease it lightly with non stick cooking spray. I used a very big cookie tray. It measured to 21x15 inches.
- Empty the contents of the brownie mix in a large bowl. Then add the rest of the ingredients one by one and mix it using a big wooden spoon.
- Pour the batter onto the prepared pan and spread it out with a spatula. Bake it for about 30-40 minutes. Doing the toothpick test for doneness in this case could be tricky because it has a lot of chocolate chips in it and the toothpick might get in the melted chocolate chips and it would be difficult to say whether it is done or not. So see if the brownie is pulling away from the sides of the pan and you should be fine.
- Transfer the pan to a cooling rack and leave it for 15-20 minutes to cool. Then slowly lift off the sheet and let it cool for another hour or so before you can slice the brownies.
My Notes
- Any type of yogurt can be used, meaning dairy or non-dairy. I have used unsweetened plain yogurt. If using Greek yogurt you might need to add a bit more water because it's very thick. The general rule of thumb for using yogurt as egg substitute is replacing each egg with ¼ cup of yogurt. Also irrespective of the brand of brownie mix or cake mix you are using this yogurt trick should work. I have tried in many brands and haven't faced any issue.
- I did not grease the aluminum foil, so it was a bit difficult to remove the brownies from the sheet. So do not forget to grease it with non-stick cooking spray or shortening.
Taste & Texture
- These big batch brownies are incredibly rich and fudgy, with a perfectly moist texture, making each bite deliciously satisfying. Also it sliced very well. It was a huge hit at the party.
Valerie says
Can this Big Batch Brownie recipe be made vegan by leaving out the yoghurt and replacing it with something else? What do you suggest?
Madhuram says
First make sure that the brownie mix is vegan, Valerie. If so you can either use equal measure of non-dairy yogurt, unsweetened applesauce or pureed silken tofu. I have used all these in various brownie recipes so pretty sure that it will work in this recipe too. Flax eggs could also be another alternative.