Mary Berry's Secret Ingredient For Achieving Perfect Brownies With A Gooey Center

When it comes to baking, you can trust a Dame. Mary Berry, former co-host of "The Great British Baking Show", was given that title, one of the of the highest honors of the United Kingdom, by then Prince Charles in 2021. Berry is perhaps best known for her ginger treacle tray bake, but we can certainly trust her with some simple brownies. Her special ingredient for super chewy, gooey brownies ("squidgy" as they say in British parlance)? Turns out it's a pretty simple substitution for refined sugar. 

Instead of using regular sugar in your next chocolate brownie bake, try some light muscovado sugar. The brownies will bake up firm but chewy in the center, and the extra caramel flavor works beautifully with dark or milk chocolate. Berry, who is often referred to as the doyenne of baking and is the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award by the U.K.'s Guild of Food Writers, is a great source for advice. Whether it's oven rack mistakes you shouldn't make, why you only need three oils in your kitchen, or the easy trick to softening butter quickly, you know that her advice for brownies is worth heeding, too. Don't go overboard with dark brown sugar, just get that extra squidge with light muscovado.

Muscovado bakes similarly to brown sugar, only it isn't fully refined. Brown sugar is refined sugar with the molasses added back into it, but muscovado is semi-refined sugar with much of the molasses (or treacle, as they call it in Britain) still remaining. The level of molasses remaining determines whether muscovado sugar is classified as light or dark (and light vs dark brown sugar is classified by how much molasses is added back into it). Because it isn't fully refined, light muscovado retains more moisture — even when heated — so it will keep your brownies chewier and more of a solid bar, with much less flour crumb. And it won't have as much of a dark, powerful caramel flavor (or as much moisture) as would dark brown sugar or dark muscovado.

With its comparatively low moisture content, light muscovado will produce a nice ridged crust on your brownies that wouldn't be fully realized with a dark muscovado or dark brown sugar. Light muscovado is also great in cookies to add a little more chew than refined sugar and a rich but subtle caramel flavor, without all of the soft doughiness that a moisture-heavy dark brown sugar may add. It will make cakes denser and custards more fully rounded in flavor. It's great in barbecue sauces and stews for a sweetness that isn't simply "sugary" or "treacly." Once you have the bag of muscovado in the pantry, you'll discover all kinds of new uses for it.