Brownie Bliss

Bobbie Greenfield, founder of Beverly Hills Brownie Company dishes on how to get perfectly fudgy brownies.

Like many bake shop owners, Bobbie Greenfield opened Beverly Hills Brownie Company as a second career, one born out of the recent economic recession. Greenfield had been running a marketing and consulting firm until the financial crash. "By day I was trying to somehow resuscitate my very successful consulting firm that I'd been at for 15 years, and by night I was back in the kitchen because it was what I thought would make me feel good," explains Greenfield.

After she closed her firm, her feel-good hobby transformed into something more. "I pulled out a recipe from my grandmother (that eventually became our Simply Classic brownie) and I just started spending more and more time at night in the kitchen," she explains. "One thing led to another and another, and I started creating different variations of the brownie. One day, truly out of the blue, the idea for the whole thing came to me."

Today, Beverly Hills Brownie Company boasts 22 brownie flavors (with a new one in the works) and utilizes Greenfield's marketing mind to make every bite perfection. Not only did the company engineer innovative (and for now, exclusive) pans that make each of their brownies have an edge on each side and a chewy center, but every detail down to the frosting enhances the eating experience. For brownies like their famed red velvet variety, Greenfield "wanted it to be a taste combination where you got frosting in every bite, but the frosting didn't overpower [the brownie]." Instead of coating the top in frosting, she settled on a swirly five petal flower design to hit all the edges and corners.

That red velvet brownie with the five-petal cream cheese butter cream frosting swirl got the attention of one culinary superstar: Bobby Flay. While he was doing a book signing near the bake shop, Greenfield swung by with an assortment of brownies. Flay dropped everything, focused on in her red velvet cupcake and said, "you did a red velvet brownie? That is really tough." Greenfield agreed, as it had taken her 241 batches to get it right. He bit in and said to a packed store, "this is good!"

"People smile when they eat a brownie," says Greenfield. "I watch it everyday. It is really a great feeling."

To learn more about Greenfield and pick up some of her brownie-making secrets, Check out the slideshow above.