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Brownie preferences can differ wildly, with people split between sweet or bittersweet, frosted or unfrosted, cakey or fudgy. If you’re on team fudgy and are obsessed with finding a brownie recipe that gives you the maximum amount of denseness and moisture that chocolate, flour, and sugar can deliver, odds are you have stumbled upon the ice-bath trick at some point. The idea is that by cooling the brownie pan in an ice bath immediately after pulling it out of the oven, you can arrest the cooking process and leave the brownie’s center in a barely cooked, almost truffle-like state.
Celebrity chef Giada De Laurentiis made a video to test the ice-bath brownie technique, and it didn’t turn out as she’d hoped. Using the same brand of boxed brownies, De Laurentiis made two identical batches for the experiment: One was dunked in an ice bath, and one was not. Visually, the ice-bath brownies actually looked cakier than the control brownies, and her partner, Shane, confirmed that he liked the latter better during a taste test. On the surface, it looks like the ice-bath trick is a dud for those who want to bake brownies to their preferred texture.
So what went wrong? The theory on De Laurentiis’ blog, Giadzy, is that the ice bath actually traps steam inside the brownies and lets them cook for longer than intended. The blog goes on to explain that the trick might still work by using slightly under-baked brownies instead of following the package instructions to a T.
The ice-bath trick is older than you think
Given that the ice-bath trick has actually been around for over 20 years, with multiple people online vouching for its effectiveness, there’s reason to believe that it’s as good as advertised — just not as executed in Giada De Laurentiis’ video. The ice-bath trick was reportedly first published in 2003 in the book “Bittersweet” by baker and chocolate expert Alice Medrich. Medrich is so renowned for her knowledge that she’s often referred to as the First Lady of Chocolate, so any trick that comes from her is most likely the result of thorough research and testing.
In her book, Medrich shares a recipe for classic unsweetened-chocolate brownies that are developed to have a crusty top and an interior that is delightfully gooey. She credits the contrast in textures to the ice-bath technique, which would later be attributed to Steve Klein, the husband of her assistant. Klein reportedly discovered the technique — called “The Steve Ritual” by those in the know — by accident in college.
How to do the original ice-bath brownie trick
In her recipe, Alice Medrich calls for baking the brownies at a high temperature for a short amount of time, appearing to confirm the fix mentioned in the Giadzy blog post. The boxed brownies used in Giada De Laurentiis’ video are meant to be baked at 325 degrees Fahrenheit for roughly 40 minutes if you’re using an 8×8-inch metal pan; Medrich’s recipe, on the other hand, calls for baking at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 minutes. De Laurentiis’ video also shows her using a glass pan, which might also have contributed to the difference in results.
It’s hard to tell whether the ratios of certain ingredients are similar between the boxed brownies that De Laurentiis used and those in Medrich’s recipe; any significant variation between them can also yield wildly different results. If you feel like experimenting in the kitchen, you can still try transforming boxed brownies into decadent bars of chocolate goo using The Steve Ritual; just make sure that you follow the temperature and bake time recommended by Medrich. You can make the brownies even fudgier by adding an everyday canned ingredient. While you’re at it, use a metal pan — heated glass that cools too rapidly can crack or even explode if you’re not careful.
