Cocoa Brownies

Cocoa Brownies, originally uploaded by aznkey.

My first time baking brownies. Damn tasty, highly recommmend.
Recipe
Taste 4/5
Difficulty 2/5
If you read the reviews, don't pay attention to the people that said the bake time is wrong. They don't know what they are doing, some said they left it in the oven for 40 mins and it still wasn't cooked, i have no idea what they did. Follow the recipe and it will turn out great. My notes on this recipe.

1. You don't have to use a water bath, just use a small pot and turn your stove to the lowest setting.
2. I baked mine at 335 because i believed those stupid people that said it didn't cook in 25 mins. 320 should be find.
3. Pastry chef and chocolate expert Alice Medrich, who has written several books about baking with chocolate, swears by something she calls the "Steve ritual," after a friend who discovered the technique by accident. She bakes her brownies for a shorter time at a higher temperature (375 to 400 degrees), then placing the hot pan in ice water about 3/4" deep. The sudden change in temperature produces a crisp crust and a soft, dense center.
I did shock the brownies, but i did not bake them at high temp, i will try that next time.
4. It's probably important that you use the suggested size pan*, since surface area will affect how it bakes. I think this is why it didn't bake properly for those people.
5. I couldn't find unsweeted cocoa powerd so i use I used Ghiradelli sweet ground chocolate and cocoa powder. Thus, some calculations must be done to adjust the amount of sugar added.

Grams of sugar needed
amount required for recipe = 1.25 cups
225g/cup * 1.25cup = 281.25g

Grams of sugar in sweet cocoa
Recipe requires 3/4 cups of unsweeten cocoa + 2 tbs
some quick convertion:
16 tbs/cup * 3/4 cup +2 tbs = 14 tbs of cocoa needed

From nutritional facts
1/4 cup/ serving * 16tbs/cup = 4 tbs/serving
14tbs/4 = 3.5 serving of cocoa needed
30 g of sugar/ serving * 3.5 = 105g sugar in sweet cocoa

Subtracting the amount of sugar in the sweet cocoa from the amount sugar we needed to add: 281.25 - 105 = 176.25 g

and since i don't have a scale.. another convertion
176.25g * 1cup/225g= .783 cups* 16 tbs/cup = 12.5 tbs

12.5 tbs = 3/4 cups + 1/2 tbs of sugar
lol all that work and guess what.. when i finished the calculations i notice the the recipe behind the ghirardelli jar. It was almost exactly like the one from epicurious, except it had more flour and a bit of baking power. And the amount of sugar required? 3/4 cups!!!! So while we are at it might as well calculate the percent error. I think my calculated value should be the theoritical value.
(12.5-12 tbs)/12.5 * 100%
= 4% error

In conclusion, this was a very fun lab. Sources of error include the fluctuations in oven temperature that occured during the process of adding hazle nuts halfway through baking. Also my walmart grade measuring instruments aren't very accurate. Ways to improvement on this experiment is to use a scale.

* Don't have a 9x9 pan? no problem make one with foil=)