An edge on every brownie. Now that’s creative. Great design.
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Jason Fried wrote this on Jun 08 2007 There are 32 comments.
Chris 08 Jun 07
But I like middles. Who is going to sell me a spherical baking pan?
Dave P 08 Jun 07
This is an interesting concept, assuming you like brownie edges. I don’t, so I would never buy it.
Taylor Hughes 08 Jun 07
Aren’t the edges the chewiest/dryest part?
Arik 08 Jun 07
@Taylor, Yes.
Jamie Tibbetts 08 Jun 07
I second the vote for a spherical baking pan. Middle pieces rule. ;)
Benjy 08 Jun 07
Like Chris, I prefer the middles when it comes to brownies.
On the other hand… as I sit here eating slices of a square cut pizza, I’d love to see something like this to avoid the messy, crustless squares from the middle!
Zack 08 Jun 07
Nobody must do the dishes around here… that thing looks like a nightmare to clean.
WmD 08 Jun 07
I’m told that brownies made with oil (usually from a box) tend to have less dry edges, and most people prefer the edges for these brownies.
However those made with butter tend to be drier on the edges, so not as many people prefer those.
A better solution would be to determine the best temperature/time ratio for your oven (and for the weather that day) to minimize/maximize the crust-effect that matches your taste/recipe.
Eh, who knows. Delicious either way, no?
Karl N 08 Jun 07
Great design, if I liked the edges.
Michael Zuschlag 08 Jun 07
Zack—I was going to mention the hassle of cutting the baked brownies out. I’m used to taking a bread knife and with a few strokes cutting a grid through the entire batch. Then there’s the issue of getting the batter into the pan without slopping it on the ridges.
Benjy—From a civil engineering standpoint, all pizzas should be round. Slicing the pizza is easy, each slice comes with an excellant handle, and the pizza tapers from from the support point allowing a crust of uniform thickness to perform as an adequate cantilever.
Noah Everett 08 Jun 07
Ice cream beats the brownie
Marcin 08 Jun 07
True edges fan would die for this pan. I like this – intersting idea, how to dive into huge niche without huge costs
Karl N 08 Jun 07
I guess one thing I just noticed is that the pan has a fair amount of wasted space in the thick metal areas that separate the sections.
Why not just sell long, thin rectangular pans? That seems like the “simple” solution. ;)
Peter Hentges 08 Jun 07
I say bah! This pan isn’t good design because it is a uni-tasker. Good for baking edge-pieces of brownie and nothing else. If you’re that dedicated to edge pieces you could achieve a similar effect by baking your brownies in loaf pans or by putting a smaller pan inside a larger pan and weighing it down or by using a bundt pan.
Creative is using what you have to achieve the desired effect. Remember “embracing constraints?”
Hans 08 Jun 07
I’m with the above, I hate the edges! The ideal brownie baker would be a cookie sheet ;)
SH 08 Jun 07
“I say bah! This pan isn’t good design because it is a uni-tasker.”
Hey, Alton Brown, if you read their site, you’ll see a whole slew of other things you can make better with this pan: “Your homemade vegetable casseroles, manicotti, scalloped potatoes, macaroni and cheese, and zesty herb stuffing will bake thoroughly and evenly from edge to edge.”
I would much rather buy one pan I can use for a lot of things than clutter my kitchen with a bunch of smaller loaf pans.
Benjy 08 Jun 07
Michael Zuschlag – Civil engineering be damned, here in Chicago pizza places often cut round, thin-crust pizzas into grids rather than wedges. This creates dreaded middle pieces without any crust to hold on to…
Anyone know why this is done, and is this another of those only in Chicago things?
Peter Hentges 08 Jun 07
I agree with using one pan for many things, SH, but you’re assuming that you wouldn’t have loaf pans (which nest nicely taking up minimal extra space) anyway.
I’ll give these folks points for clever marketing but their design strikes me as blatantly “gadget-y.”
JF 08 Jun 07
Jesus, if you like it buy it if you don’t don’t. I can’t believe people are debating a baking pan.
Jack Shedd 08 Jun 07
I try my best not to debate baking pans.
They have a tendency to win. And man, losing to a baking pan? It smarts.
Dave M 08 Jun 07
Jason- I can’t believe you’re still surprised at what gets debated on SVN . :-)
John 08 Jun 07
Debating a baking pan or getting something real done…I am with Jason!
Darrel 08 Jun 07
What Dave M said.
Diego 08 Jun 07
I like raw brownies. Beats both square and round pans. XD
Chris Hajer 09 Jun 07
There is a place near me in Forest Park Illinois, McGaffers, that has a ‘donut pizza’. It’s a regular round pizza, cut into a proper grid, but before they bake it, they cut a circle of dough out of the middle. Thus, all pieces are edge pieces. Genius!
Kim Siever 09 Jun 07
I love the edges.
George 09 Jun 07
I “can’t believe” a website about design and useability is championing something so evidently lacking in useability as “good design”. shrug
Valerie 10 Jun 07
So when does the darn price come down so I can afford to buy the sweet thing?!!!! Gimme edges now!!!!
Chad 11 Jun 07
My two cents on burnt edges. After looking at the web site, I am seeing that the insides cook more evenly and the edges would only be chewy edges, and not crusty and hard every. I’m not an edges fan, but I would be if they came out perfect like that!
Benjy 11 Jun 07
@Chris Hajer, that’s cool that somebody finally thought to cut the middle out of the grid-cut pizza. Now… do they sell the pizza holes, too? As a kids meal? In a box, like donut holes?
Adam Brucker 12 Jun 07
Awesome product.
Remarkable, targeted at a clear niche within a big target market, controversial / polarizing, priced right, and a definite conversation starter / show off piece at your next dinner party.
Lots to learn from a brownie pan…
{and looks like they are already back-ordered…}
Steve 14 Jun 07
I’d rather save my money, not add extra clutter to my cabinets and just use the muffin tin to make them.
This discussion is closed.