Susan Reid

November 11, 2014 at 2:11pm

Hi, Wilcogirl. I hope I can help. You make some very valid points, and I'll try to address them as you've made them. You're correct, the word "simmer" isn't really relevant. Simmering happens when water hits 210 to 212°F. Sugar will melt at higher temps than that. I think there has been some conflation of the two terms. Heating the butter and sugar does two things: makes use of the available water in the butter to BEGIN dissolving some of the sugar crystals, giving them a bit of a head start toward the sugars liquification and (hopeful) migration to the top of the batter to make the shiny top. I've made our brownie recipe countless times, and end up with a shiny top pretty much all of the time. Here's what I do: put the sugar and butter together in my mixing bowl. Throw the whole business in the microwave to melt the butter. Take out, stir, add the cocoa, stir. The mixture is still fairly warm at this point, but not what I'd call hot. Somewhere in the realm of clothes right out of the dryer. I add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each (I just use a dough whisk to do this; not my mixer). As each egg gets mixed in, the batter thickens and changes. Flour last, then any additions. Then right in to the pan and then the oven. Usually the batter is still lukewarm when I put it in to bake. Our test kitchen ovens are mostly electric, with sealed bottoms (no visible element). They heat from top and bottom, but the top element is only involved when the oven is preheating. Once up to temperature, as it cycles through, the bottom element is doing most of the work. I think one thing that hasn't entered your calculus is time; try once more, but don't let the batter cool all the way (when, as you state, the sugar will recrystallize anyhow). I hope this helps make some sense of it all for you. Susan
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