Brownie Baking Tip

While testing the recipes for Brownie Points, we baked dozens of batches and, along the way, experimented with a few techniques for keeping our brownies from sticking, including greasing the pan with butter, dusting it with flour, and lining its bottom with a sheet of greased parchment paper. Those techniques left us scraping sweets still stubbornly lodged in the pan or, worse, inverting them en masse onto a cutting board, which destroyed their delicate, flaky crust. There had to be a better way, we reasoned. Finally, we turned to the 2006 edition of Joy of Cooking (Scribner), which recommended lining the pan with a sheet of greased tinfoil long enough that its edges would hang over the side of the pan and serve as handles. We decided to use greased parchment paper instead of foil and also added a second sheet, laid into the pan crosswise, to form a second set of handles. When the brownies were done, the entire cake lifted easily out of the pan, completely intact and ready for dividing into squares.