Chocolate Brownie

Product name: Chocolate Brownie
Calories: 228 for a 53g brownie
Country of origin: UK 

You know you have a good job when you’re sat on the phone in work, your boss walks in, puts a bakery item on your desk, and mouths the words ‘That’s for you’. I’m pleased to say that this is what happened to me with the Chocolate Brownie I’m reviewing tonight, and that’s also the reason why I don’t know the purchase details!

This Chocolate Brownie was made by a company called La Boulangerie and came in a very basic-looking plastic wrapper which, whilst containing a window to be able to view the product through, was partially made to look and feel like a brown paper bag which is obviously the kind of packaging a fresh bakery product would normally be taken home in. Whilst this did look slightly boring in appearance, the good news was that the plastic allowed the Brownie to stay fresher for longer.

I have to say that 228 calories didn’t seem like very many for this kind of product, particularly when considering that the main ingredient was light brown soft sugar and that it also contained Belgian chocolate. All in all, it seemed like it was going to be a good quality product, with the ingredients list also specifying that the egg it contained was free range, and 15% of the product consisted of dark chocolate.

I don’t think brownies are the kind of cake that ever look particularly exciting but, as they go, I did think this one looked pretty good. It had a thin and relatively pale crust on top and its centre looked so lovely: dark, moist and dense – it appeared to have a perfect fudgy texture. The Brownie didn’t have an overly strong aroma but it did smell nicely of cocoa.

Taste-wise, this Brownie had the general flavour I would expect from this product, although perhaps not as sweet since the chocolate provided quite strong, dark tangs. Whilst nice, I did also find it ever so slightly bland and a bit watery in places, but this was possibly down to the fact that, usually, the brownies I eat are homemade peanut butter ones which obviously have a little bit more going on! This one did have a good aftertaste, though.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: for me, it’s the texture that makes a brownie. In this case, it wasn’t spot on, but it was pretty close. The Brownie had just the right level of a crispy shell which led on to a very soft centre. Contrary to its appearance, this wasn’t actually fudgy, but it was very gooey and quite smooth. This is where I thought it could be improved slightly as it could have done with a little bit more stiffness.

I guess, in summary, this was a pretty good product, but nothing quite beats homemade! 

Appearance: 7.5/10
Aroma: 7/10
Taste: 7/10
Texture: 8/10
Overall score: 7.38/10