Double Deck Brownies (1962)

Yes, it's 'Deck' and not 'Decker.' I don't know why. Yes, I did check.

What better way is there for a food company to market its products than with a promotional cook book? It’s the marketer’s trick of selling the hammer by telling the story of the painting on the wall. During a good part of the 1900s a home baker could get them by mail off a few box tops and some change for shipping and handling, but today promotional cook books can be found at every check-out aisle in a grocery store.

Today’s cookie recipe comes from such a promotional cook book, promoting Baker’s Chocolate and Angel Flake Coconut. For more than 100 years Baker’s has been the go-to brand for pre-measured unsweetened or semi-sweetened squares of baking chocolate – such that many just call it ‘Baker’s Chocolate,’ no matter what the brand.

Old recipes by brand name companies come with a warning, though; it’s number 3 on my list of Old Cookie Recipe Rules. Number One: Read the recipe at least three times to ensure understanding. Number Two: Check any antiquated terms, including those pertaining to oven temperature and ingredient names. Number Three: If it’s a recipe by a brand name company, check to see if the product has changed at all over the years. Companies do change their formulas and formats, and old directions or ingredient lists may need some maneuvering. Read ahead for more Adventures in Altered Ingredients!

Double Deck Brownies (1962)

From Baker’s Chocolate and Coconut Favorites published by the General Foods Corporation and General Foods Kitchens

Ingredients:

2/3 cup sifted flour

½ teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

1 cup sugar

2 eggs, well beaten

1/3 cup shortening, melted

1/3 cup Baker’s Angel Flake Coconut (NOTE: I couldn't find Baker's, so I used another brand)

½ teaspoon almond extract

1 ½ squares Baker’s Unsweetened Chocolate, melted

(NOTE: I doubled this recipe as I needed more than one 8 x 8 inch pan’s worth of brownies for the taste-testers; the photo above shows the doubled amounts.)

Measure sifted flour, baking powder and salt and sift together.

Gradually add sugar to eggs, beating thoroughly. Blend in shortening. Add flour mixture and mix well.

Pour ½ cup of the batter into a small bowl, mix in coconut and almond extract.

Add chocolate to remaining batter and spread evenly in a greased 8-inch square pan.

Drop coconut batter by teaspoonfuls over chocolate batter and spread carefully to form a thin layer.

Bake in moderate oven (350 degrees F) 25 to 30 minutes. Cool in pan. Cut in bars or squares. Makes about 20 brownies. Note: If desired, increase coconut to ¾ cup and stir into all the batter.

Challenges and Changes

Firstly, it was hard to get a nice coconut layer over the brownie layer, as the batter of both were very thick and a bit sticky. Using the spoon, I did get some blended bits. Also, I didn’t try to get 20 brownies out of an 8-inch square pan. I ended up getting 24 brownies from a 9 x 13 inch pan, but now I’m getting ahead of myself.

I noticed that when I mixed the chocolate into the batter, it came out very light. I checked the recipe regarding the amount of chocolate: 1 ½ squares (in my doubling: 3 squares). The pre-divided squares in my Baker’s Chocolate package seemed smaller than I remembered, but I wondered if they had just ‘concentrated’ it somehow. I decided to keep going and see how the baked version would come out.

These were beigies, not brownies. My Home Taste Tester tried one, and declared it good but not a brownie. Perhaps I’d created a new bar cookie, the amaretto beigie.

Still, I needed to figure out what was wrong. I cheated a bit and used a tool the 1960s home baker wouldn’t have had: the internet.

I looked up the Baker’s Chocolate site (now owned by Kraft!) and found a long list of angry comments from people who discovered, as I did, that two years ago the Baker’s Chocolate people changed the size of their squares. Instead of 1-ounce squares, the packages now contain bars that are pre-cut into quarter-ounce ‘Baker’s Bits’ (nice marketing move, there).

Where I had used 3 ‘Bits’ (¾ of an ounce of chocolate) thinking it was 3 ounces, I should have used 12 ‘Bits’ to make 3 ounces. According to Baker’s social media writer who responded to all the posts about sad brownies and such, the new conversion rate is printed on each package, and it is, but it’s little and not overly obvious.

I had to do them again. Take two. Right away, the difference in color showed I was actually making the proper brownie base. To simplify things this second time, I used a 9 x 13-inch pan instead of 2 8 x 8’s.

You’ll note in the baked version the coconut layer came out better as well. I bent one of my rules and used a spatula to spread the top layer.

The Ratings

Cookie Appearance: 7.2

Cookie Texture: 8.8

Cookie Mouthfeel: 8.1

Cookie Flavor: 7.0

Overall Cookie Rating: 7.4

I decided this week to start giving the taste-testers' rating averages with the more specific point-tenth decimal place.

The comments and ratings were extremely variable this week, from the 5-10 range. A few raters raved, saying "Best One Yet!" and "Very yummy!" A few others, though, liked the idea of the two layers but were unimpressed with the outcome. One thought the almond extract was over the top and overpowered all the other flavors. Another thought the cookies were bland and that the almond, chocolate and coconut flavors competed with each other too much; this rater thought 'less almond, more coconut may set it apart from "blah".'

While I adore an almond flavor, I do think it needed some moderation here; about half would have done well. And while the chocolate color certainly improved when I got the proportions right, it still didn't give a nice, rich chocolatey flavor. Perhaps in the 50+ years since this recipe was written we've all gotten used to higher flavor levels. I do note that in Baker's well-known One-Bowl Brownie recipe, they call for 2 ounces (or 8 'Baker's Bits') of chocolate for an 8 x 8-inch pan; this recipe only has 1 1/2 ounces, so maybe trying that extra amount (2 Bits!) would be a good idea.

Next week’s recipe: Cocoanut Puffs (1913)