Ava’s Anecdotes: Columnist asks ‘Are these brownies worth the 100-hour time commitment?’

Ava Musgraves
Feature Editor

Average box-mix brownies take around an hour from when the package is opened to a fresh baked good.

Alvin Zhou’s, producer at Tasty New York, 100-hour brownies don’t follow this standard time period in any sense, as in total it takes over four days to complete.

For most bakers, just the idea of spending 100 hours on a single dessert sparks an interest. The original YouTube video introducing the recipe has over 3 million views.

Other bakers, like myself, had to see for themselves if the wait for these brownies was truly worth it by trying the recipe first hand. News outlets that focus on lifestyle and entertainment have covered their opinion on the recipe, like Popsugar have covered their opinion on the recipe.

“These brownies, which I spotted on Alvin Zhou’s YouTube page, are perfectly rich, gooey, and sweet, and are as labor intensive as they are delicious (but totally worth it, I swear),” Rachel Aglar reported for Popsugar.

The recipe follows standard procedure of eggs, butter, flour, and sugar but adds the special edition of espresso powder. It as well involves four whole bars of dark chocolate, some melted others left in chunks and folded in as the last step. If that wasn’t enough for the avid chocolate lover, the recipe recommends adding another whole bar of milk chocolate, chopped and folded in.

Then the hardest part of the whole process was saying goodbye to creation for three days as its new home became the bottom of the fridge. The anticipation was very real, and holding out to bake them proved very difficult, so was the process really worth it?

My final answer is possibly. This may not be the answer you were looking for, and it’s not really what I was either.

“A good brownie to me is dense and fudgy with a dark and complex flavor—not too sweet—, and not at all cakey. If I wanted something cakey I’d bake a cake. A good recipe could set even a novice baker up to making the best brownies of their life” said Evan Thomas, writer for the blog “The Wannabe Chef”.

To use Thomas’ checklist as a grading standpoint, these brownies are an A, but the ridiculous time period it takes to make them does not earn them an A+. Brownies have done everything these brownies have in way, way less time.

My only restraint is that, I think if you really want brownies in the moment, go buy a Ghirardelli box mix, because by the time these brownies are done the craving is gone. A 60 minute wait time is a lot more appealing than 100 hours, it’s not worth it.