Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I saw this book at a local bookstore and just had to have it because of the cute name. Plus I love brownies. Call it a weakness. I love that the recipes all use the same pan size (9x9) and simple ingredients. That's a bonus. The instructions are also easy to understand. Another plus. Yesterday I gathered all of the ingredients for the original Fat Witch Brownie (including the recommended chocolate chips) and made a batch. The house smelled heavenly. When I took the brownies out of the oven they were very puffy but they did deflate during the cooling process to form some cracks along the top. No problem. I practiced self control and waited until the brownies were completely cool before cutting. Well, they were ok but they were certainly not like the ones in the picture and I'm guessing they're not like the ones in the bakery. The flavor was ok but the brownies were closer to cake than brownie. I searched online for blogs and other reviews and this seemed to be a common occurence. I could not find one person who had made the recipe with the result of a dense brownie like the Fat Witch Bakery. Some issues that may be causing problems: 1) using a mixer to incorporate ingredients 2) using 4 eggs I've never been to Fat Witch Bakery so I can only compare my results to the pictures in the book and reviews that I've read about the bakery brownies. These are not it according to people who tried the recipe and have had the original. Sorry. But if you take it for what it is instead of thinking of it as a brownie, it has a decent flavor. Just don't expect a dense, fudge-like brownie. Do expect a cake-like texture and good chocolate flavor. If anyone else has had the same experience I would like to know. Heck, if you've had them come out perfect I would like to know. It's not likely but perhaps I did something wrong. The recipe is not difficult to follow. I regret that I can not give it a higher rating but I was disappointed with the results. The book itself is cute and has stories with each recipe and great photos. The recipe results are just ok. Nothing outstanding. And I'm sorry to have to say that because I wanted to love this book. UPDATE: (9-28-10) I just made a batch of the cocoa brownies. Same issue. The brownies are cake-like instead of dense. I followed the recipe to the letter. I mixed the ingredients by hand instead of with a mixer. It's disappointing because the brownies in the pictures look so good! UPDATE: (9-30-10) OK, I'm starting to feel like I'm beating a dead horse but I called the bakery and told them that I was making brownies from the cookbook and wanted to know if the results are supposed to be cake-like or more dense. The lady at the bakery said they are supposed to be more dense than cakey. That's just not the result that these recipes yield. Some may prefer it that way. It's not my brownie of choice though.