The Very Best Brownies.
Rich, chewy and fudgy homemade brownies with a beautifully swirled, flaky top. These really are the best brownies! This delicious brownie recipe is flavored with cocoa powder and brown butter.
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on August 29, 2024
Let’s rewind to Valentine’s Day. I’m single. I’m not feeling well. My mom is in town and our plan is to eat dinner and watch movies. As the sun goes down, I decide that I need a brownie—like I really need a brownie, for aforementioned reasons—and proceed to pull every baking book off of my shelves in my search for my ideal brownie recipe.
I wanted rich, dark, chewy, legit café-like brownies with crackly tops. I didn’t want gooey, fall-apart, stick-to-your-front-teeth brownies. I also didn’t want health-ified brownies or brownies swirled with cheesecake. I wanted one perfect brownie. Sometimes a girl just needs a brownie, you know?
I finally found a promising recipe in my copy of Alice Medrich’s Sinfully Easy Delicious Desserts. It was a thinner brownie than I wanted, but it looked dark and delicious and had the most magnificent shiny, crackly top. The recipe contains a fair amount of butter, as legit brownies should, and the butter is browned before the addition of sugar and cocoa powder. If you’re going to put a lot of butter in something, you might as well brown it for extra flavor.
Alice’s recipe also called for a lower-than-usual baking temperature (325 degrees) and specified that the brownies be baked in the lower third of the oven. All of the chocolate flavor came from cocoa powder, too. Interesting.
Alice’s brownies made from scratch turned out beautifully. Crackly top. Dense, fudge-like interior. Rich, complex flavor. They weren’t quite matching my idea of the quintessential brownie, though. I wanted a taller brownie, one that is a little more like a brownie than fudge, with some chopped dark chocolate thrown in for textural interest. Thus began my obsessive quest for the quintessential brownie recipe.
Five batches of brownies and a bunch of brownie research later, I think I’ve found it. I learned a lot along the way. I learned that in order to achieve the shiny, crackly top, you have to stir the sugar into hot butter so it melts. Alice’s low baking temperature and rack positioning also seem to improve texture, but I couldn’t tell you why.
My final recipe calls for more flour and a little baking powder to help the brownies rise. I also used whole wheat flour, as always, but there’s so much chocolate in the brownies that I promise no one will be able to tell. I don’t make statements like this very often, but this really is the best brownies recipe I’ve ever encountered. (I’ve provided footnotes in my recipe so you can adjust the recipe to produce your ideal brownie.)
Ever since I started making simple baked goods from scratch, I’ve wondered how boxed mixes ever became mainstream. Sure, you don’t have to measure out flour and baking powder, but you still have to add liquid and crack the eggs. That hardly saves much time, and comes with the additional cost of preservatives and ingredients that should never be in your food. (Hydrogenated oil is the devil.)
Michael Pollan, my favorite food writer, came to Kansas City last summer to talk about his latest book, Cooked. He finally solved the boxed mix mystery for me.
Pollan explained that the first boxed mixes contained powdered eggs, which removed the step of cracking eggs into the bowl. I mean, why go to the trouble of cracking eggs into a bowl if you don’t have to, right? Wrong. American women initially wanted nothing to do with the boxed mixes. They felt like they were cheating when they used them. Once the manufacturers took out the powdered eggs so we could crack eggs over the bowl, we felt like we owned the final result. The baked good was then homemade enough to present to our loved ones.
If you have never made brownies from scratch, give these a try and I promise you’ll never reach for a box again. If you’re pinched for time, throw in chocolate chips instead of chopping the chocolate by hand. Ta da! Homemade brownies made from scratch and baked with love.
The Very Best Brownies.
Rich, dark, chewy and fudgy brownies made from scratch. These brownies are flavored with cocoa powder and brown butter and feature a beautifully swirled, flaky top. I don’t dare make claims like this very often, but this is the very best brownie recipe!
Ingredients
- 10 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into ½-inch slices
- 1 ¼ cups cane sugar
- ¾ cup natural unsweetened cocoa powder
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon espresso powder or very finely ground coffee (optional)
- 2 cold large eggs
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- ⅔ cup white whole wheat flour or flour of choice
- 2 ounces dark or semi-sweet chocolate, roughly chopped, or ⅓ cup chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit with a rack in the lower third of the oven. Line an 8-inch square baking pan with two criss-crossed pieces of parchment paper, making sure that the paper is long enough to go up the sides a couple of inches. Grease the parchment paper.
- Brown the butter: Melt the butter in a medium-sized saucepan over medium heat. Continue to cook the butter, while whisking constantly, until it’s a pale golden brown and the particles suspended in it are reddish brown. This usually takes me about 10 minutes.
- Remove the pan from heat and stir in the sugar. Then add the cocoa powder, sea salt, baking powder and espresso powder. Stir until the ingredients are thoroughly incorporated. Let the mixture cool for 5 minutes.
- Add the eggs one at a time, beating vigorously with a wooden spoon or silicone spatula after each one. When the mixture looks thick, shiny and well blended, add the vanilla extract and the flour. Stir until you no longer see streaks of flour. Then beat vigorously (put those arm muscles to work!) for 50 strokes with the wooden spoon or spatula.
- At this point, the mixture should be no more than slightly warm (if not, let it cool for a few more minutes). Fold in the chocolate chunks or chips.
- Spread the batter in the lined pan, then use a knife to make light swirls in the top of the batter. Bake on the lower rack for about 25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out mostly clean. Cool the brownies in the pan on a baking rack.
- Once the brownies are completely cool, lift the edges of the parchment paper and transfer the brownies to a cutting board. Use a sharp chef’s knife to cut the brownies into 16 or 25 squares.
Notes
- Adapted from Sinfully Easy Delicious Desserts and King Arthur Flour.
- These brownies freeze well. Store them in a freezer-safe bag and let them defrost at room temperature.
- For more dense and fudge-like brownies, cook the brownies a minute or two less.
- For more fluffy and cake-like brownies, add another egg.
- For less rich brownies, skip the chopped chocolate.
- If you like nuts in your brownies, fold in 1 cup walnut or pecan pieces along with the chopped chocolate.
- I haven’t tried, but I think an all-purpose gluten-free flour blend could be substituted for the whole wheat flour with good results. (Update! Here’s proof that Cup4Cup flour works great in this recipe.)
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
P.s. If you really want health-ified, naturally sweetened brownies, I have some dark chocolate zucchini brownies over here. Note that they don’t have the crackly top that these brownies do and that the zucchini hardly adds much nutrition because it’s almost entirely water. If I made them again, I would try skipping the zucchini altogether, upping the cocoa powder to 2/3 cup and decreasing the baking powder to 1 teaspoon for richer and less cakey results. 5/2/14: sorry folks, Terri says the brownies don’t turn out well when made this way!
These are amazing! They are crunchy, just how I like them! I tried another recipe and it was more like a cake but this recipe is spot on! My husband and son loved them as well! I deffently recommend and I will be making these again!
They are a perfect blend of chewy and crunchy!! They did not fall apart for me. They had the perfect chocolaty taste, definitely not overpowering! Amazing!! I put them on a thin baking sheet on parchment paper, I was a little skeptical about that but it worked out great!
I tripled the recipe and made a big batch for a work event, worked beautifully! Rick, fudgy brownies with a crisp top and gooey center. Make sure to use good quality chocolate and cocoa powder for best results. I cut back on the cocoa and put 1/2 cup as opposed to the 3/4 and it worked just fine. Thanks Kate!
I’ve never made brownies before and I’m not a very good baker but I found this recipe to be really good. Wasn’t crumbly at all IMO so I’m unsure what the issue is. The top wasn’t as “crisp” as yours. Granted I might have used less butter because I’m unsure what 10tbsp of butter looks like when cutting from a block and I used brown sugar and cut back on the extra 1/4 cup thinking the molasses in it might change things…luckily I whisked the mix really well to a nice sheen cause you stressed the importance of that.
I’ll have to give this a few more tries to find the right amount of sweetness and texture. I DO have a question…how do I bake it but still have chocolate chunks in it?
Kate do you have a good bananna bread recipe?
Hey Kate!
My name is Aldo. I’m from Mexico and live in Mexico. I’ve always loved brownies. I surfed in the internet for several times until I arrived to your site. I tried your brownies recipe for the first time to have them as New Year’s dinner dessert. We definitely love them! I won’t never try any box mix to make brownies. Thanks a lot for sharing!
I love these brownies…just made it! This will be my go-to brownie recipe!
Wow this is really a great recipe.. the bottom was burned a little but I just trimmed it. It still taste so so good, I will post it at Instagram.. x
Hey, Annie – Thanks! And I like a little crunchy to contrast the chewy, so who knows – could have been a happy accident :) Remember to use #cookieandkate on insta so I can find it!
These really are the BEST brownies. I am thrilled that I have finally found my
“go-to” and can stop searching. Thank you for the delicious recipe!!
You’re welcome, Shami! Happy they lived up to their name ;)
Since finding your recipe I’ve made it twice. I opted to not add the chocolate chips and found that the richness of the chocolate flavor using just the cocoa was perfect for me. I also baked for 35 minutes and the texture and consistency was just right. Theses brownies are absolutely delicious!
I’m glad you could adjust it to your tastes, Jill!
They came out just like you described! Incredibly chewy fudgy and rich . I used a dark cocoa powder and 85% dark chocolate bar to fold in . I wonder why some folks had trouble with this recipe. Thank you for sharing , my family loved them .
So glad it worked for you, Nora! Sounds divine.
Just made those… turned out perfect! Thank you very much for the recipe. It’s s keeper
These are THE best!!!! Taste just like my fave boxed mix. I’m so excited to finally have a from scratch recipe that tastes this good!!!!!!
So nice of you, Jennifer! Happy you enjoy them.
I really loved the idea of adding browned butter..the flavor was yum..but i found the batter to be dry and i had to press it into the pan somewhat like cookie dough..what could i have done wrong.. any idea? (I used regular sugar instead of cane and regular wheat flour instead of white .could that be it?)
I baked these delicious rich chocolate brownies tonight. My family, husband and kids loved them!!. My husband is anxiously awaiting me ti make the gingerbread pancakes tomorrow morning!!!
❤️
Thank you for these great recipes
I made these brownies last night and I’ve not been able to stop eating them since! They seriously are the best brownies! So addicting! I plan on making a double batch tomorrow and actually sharing this time with my grandsons because I know they will love them too! Thanks for sharing the recipe! :)
I hope they like them, Deb! Thanks.
did you use regular cocoa powder or bensdorf?
Hi! I used regular cocoa powder, not Dutch-processed cocoa powder.
These look amazing! Can I substitute margarine for butter for a dairy free treat?
Sure! You could also use coconut oil, and it’d work out just fine.
This is the 2nd recipe of your website I have baked. The outcome was good… the next time will be better. Here’s the story… I had a good laugh at my own blunder… I took a 1/3 measuring cup instead of 1/4 measuring cup to add raw sugar cane that I added into an empty dry bowl.. just before I added to warm, melted unsalted butter in the saucepan. My gut instinct was telling me that I had too much sugar… I was very stubborn and added half of 1/3 of cocoa powder into that bowl… then I looked down and saw my 1/4 measuring cup — I checked… 5 x 1/4 measured cup was a lot less! I still have the leftover “cocoa powdered” sugar — that I will use for my next baking round with this brownies recipe!
Anyway, I had to make adjustments to my error and the butter kind of waited too long before I added the sugar and cocoa powder. The outcome was good – better than I expected. This recipe is great with GF all-purpose flour and pecans added. I left off the 2 oz of semi-sweet chocolates. The taste was great… not too sweet… chocolatey enough for me! :) I have them sitting in containers in the kitchen.. so tempting to eat them all! :)
Thanks again! :)
Hi Kate,
I tried your recipe it but the tops are not shiny the way they look in your picture. They are fudgy and delicious but they don’t look quite right. Is it because I used granulated sugar instead of cane sugar? It is what I had on hand.
Thank you for sharing the recipe! I, too, am in search of that “just right” Platonic brownie.
Hi Aileen, I’m sorry to hear that! Granulated sugar should have worked just as well. This recipe is a little finicky; I know that getting the butter to the right temp so the sugar melts into it is key, and so is mixing the batter as directed.
Just pulled these out of the oven. I used brown instead of white sugar (what I had on hand) and omitted the coffee (I’m really sensitive to caffeine). Browning the butter? G E N I U S!!! I started imagining the spinoff recipes…
– orange zest for chocolate orange brownies.
– peppermint essential oil for peppermint patty brownies.
– swirling peanut butter into the batter during the final step for peanut butter cup brownies.
– swirling raspberry jam (like the PB) for a chocolate berry brownie.
Now the question remains…can I wait for them to cool before I dig in? :)
All of those sound delicious, Jamie! I’m glad this sparked some creativity in you. :)
Just made these and they are to die for. Took a litter longer than the 25 minutes for me, that’s probably just my oven though as I find this with a lot of recipes.
Cannot wait to serve these tonight with Ice Cream.
Hi, I tried this recipe today. Came out really well… most of it is already consumed.
I realised that I didn’t have enough cocoa but still went and used 2/4 cup cocoa.. brownies turned out fine maybe because I used lots of Choco chips.
Also brownies seemed a bit buttery.
Overall yummilicious!!
Thanks, Babita! I like the butteriness, but you can always use less butter if you prefer.
Brownies are just amazing. Did twice and I never go for any other recipe and I have been asked for the recipe every time by ppl and lots of praises..
Doubt- will it come out well without eggs? As my Frd wants egg free brownies?
So glad these are a hit, Roshini! Re: the eggs– you could try using some vegan egg substitutes, like flax eggs or aquafaba. Maybe poke around the comments here and see if another reader has had some success, as I have a lot of helpful folks that leave tips and tricks for substitutions for specialized diets.
I made these but substituted 95g of ground almonds for the flour. Very yummy, & nice texture, so seems to have worked out fine. :-)
Great!
Moist, rich and delicious brownies. I baked for 30 min. Always better a tad under baked- of course. Bye-bye box brownie mix. Caution: Highly addictive. I almost ate 1/2 the pan!!
Ha! This made me smile. Thanks, Lynn.
Hi! Thank you for sharing this tecipe, I cannot wait to try it tomorrow! Quick question, because we add the chocolate chunks/chips at the end, where the mixture is only slightly warm, by the time we mixed it, it won’t be melted in the dough right? When we finished stirring, we could see the chunks? (As it will probably melt inside the oven?)
Hi, Kate! I’ve stumbled across your blog a few times now. I have occasional bouts with insomnia that are quite frustrating (especially in 3rd trimester of pregnancy!), and I usually end up on the couch with Pinterest. One thing led to another on one of these sleepless nights, and suddenly I was on the hunt for a great brownie recipe. My husband and I are English teachers abroad, so I knew it had to be a simple recipe with ingredients I could find here. These ones really looked perfect! I tried them out after reading all the comments, and they came out almost perfect, even in my little toaster oven. The beautiful tops never showed up, though the taste is unbelievable. Looking back, my batter looked grainy a few times. Are we supposed to completely melt the sugar in the brown butter? I stirred it really well, but it may not have been enough to dissolve the sugar, hence the lack of pretty, swirly, crackly tops. Definitely a keeper recipe, and I want to try it again for sure! Thanks a lot!
Just made these tonight and they turned out amazing. I tried to use the best ingredients I could find and it definitely paid off! I added a little bit of water to the batter (like 1/8 cup) and cooked them for about 32 minutes instead of the original 25. Will absolutely make these again!
I’m so glad these turned out so well, Madison! Thanks.
I’d like to try this recipe. However, I have a very basic (kinda silly) question. When baking brownie (or any other cake for that matter), do we use top & bottom heat or just the bottom heat? Thank you for the delicious recipe!
Hi, Afiq! Not a silly question at all. If you have an oven that allows you to do both, I’d suggest doing that. If not, bottom heat will be make for a more evenly-cooked product than the top heat.
This is my first time commenting even though I’ve been following your blog for some time now and even bought your book (yay!). I was nervous to make this recipe after reading comments about them not turning out well. I followed your recipe to the “t” excluding the use of espresso powder and they turned out great! Surprisingly bitter and skinny, the chocolate chips made it just sweet enough. I couldn’t get the perfect shiny top, but I love them nonetheless and will make again.
Great! I’m glad these worked out for you, Cayla.
So far my batter came out too thick so I had to add a couple more eggs and it was still really thick; waiting to see the results but I don’t have much confidence at this point. It sounded like a great recipe though!!!
Sorry this was disappointing, Amanda.
Hi Kate!
I made these brownies awhile back and they came out perfectly and I wondered what on earth was wrong with all these people who were getting weird, oily brownies. Then I made this recipe again and got weird, oily brownies.
I thought about what I might have done differently for the second batch. I was in a bit of a hurry so I turned the heat up a bit higher when I browned the butter. The butter browned faster but looked just like it did when I heated the butter on medium heat the first time. However, I did notice when I added the sugar and cocoa, the sugar caramelized more. I now suspect that my cooking pot was too hot even though the butter looked and smelled fine and I overheated the sugar.
Tonight I browned the butter on medium heat and was patient and I was rewarded with a beautiful pan of brownies. I think it’s very important to brown the butter slowly on medium heat and to follow your directions precisely to achieve excellent results.
Thank you so much for all the fabulous recipes!
Pat
Iiiinteresting. Thanks for all these notes, Patricia–hopefully it’ll help others avoid an oily result!
Turned out super well! I did change a few things because I am always trying to see if I can make things slightly healthier without decreasing the tastiness – I subbed some of the butter for coconut oil, used half a cup of cane sugar and half a cup of maple sugar, and subbed the whole wheat flour for a blend of oatmeal flour and almond flour. I will say the top was slightly less crackly, but it was just as delicious!
Hi, again! Just a quick update, I’ve made these again since my first try – and I made a double batch, since the first trial run was gobbled up so quickly! This time, they came out absolutely perfect. I can second what Patricia said: you definitely need to be take your time browning the butter. Giving myself plenty of time to make the recipe makes them come out with those pretty swirly tops, unparalleled flavor, and I enjoy the process so much more (baking can be such a stress reliever for me!). Also, I did not add chocolate chips in my trial run, but did add them the second time. I think that also mad ea big difference in the texture (even though my batter was still a bit warm, and the chocolate melted a bit before going in the oven).
All that to say this: This is my new brownie recipe. I doubt I will ever make another! I may have to bake up a batch and freeze them before my baby arrives (in a couple weeks!). Thanks for all your research! It paid off!
Thanks, Kristee! Yep, it looks like browning the butter is the secret here. I’m so glad you enjoy these and that they bring some relaxation into your kitchen!
Hi Kate, I made brownies today and followed your recipe totally. They turned out just as you described crumbly inside, cracky top and chewy. I wish I had a picture of it. Nevermind, will make them again. only one thing, I baked it over 35 minutes to become perfect. I guess every oven is different so difference in baking time. Thank you for the recipe. They really are best ever brownies!
I’m so glad these came out as described, Vinita!
These really are the best brownies! The brown butter really adds to the flavor. I accidentally left out the additional 1/4 cup sugar and they were plenty sweet. This will become a new family favorite.
Thanks, Gayle! I’m glad these worked out sans sugar, too.
is pure cane sugar similar to brown sugar??
Hi, Hassan! No, it’s not. Brown sugar has molasses in it, while cane sugar does not. You can make white sugar into brown sugar by adding molasses to it in a food processor.
These brownies are great! I didn’t brown the butter, just melted it and didn’t have any problems with the emulsification. Thanks for doing all the work for us and then sharing your recipe!
Great, Stephanie! Thanks for commenting.
These were awesome. I included wants and pecans. Thank you for the recipe!
Yum! Sounds great, Chizari.
Just made these brownies (UK) and I changed all the metrics which made me a little nervous I have to say. I made another lot of brownies a few days ago but they weren’t exactly what I was looking for. I have made plenty of brownies in the past, but wow these are something else! We visited the Lake District just last week and there I bought a fantastic brownie which brought me looking for something the same and here it is!! They are rich,amazing texture – set but still gooey & a perfect hit for when you need that chocolate rush! My favourite recipe so far, thanks Kate!
Oh, I’m so glad you found what you were looking for, Michaela! These brownies live up to their name. :)
It’s true — these are THE very best brownies.
Hooray! Thanks, Christina!
I loved this recipe. It turned out perfect: moist, very chocolaty, sweet but not too too sweet. I did add the coffee, and all chocolate used was bakers/unsweetened. I made it in a square Pyrex dish, which increased the baking time by about 10 minutes, but they still turned out great.
I was thinking to make a double batch for a party this weekend, but was wondering how it might affect the baking. It would be more practical to make it in one bigger dish, but I’m worried that the bigger volume might mean that the edges come out hard and the middle too soft. Do you think that it’s ok to just double the recipe and use a bigger dish, or is it safer to stick to doing 2x a smaller dish?
Thanks for the tips!
Use it every time! Amazing! The brown butter trick is the key to this recipe!
Yes, it sure is!
I made these a while back and the flavor was fantastic but they were suuuper fudgy. Like, they could have passed for fudge, fudgy. I’m not much of a baker so I assume it’s me and not the recipe. :) I’m hoping to give these another try this weekend and I wonder if you have any recommendations for slightly less fudginess.
Everyone loved these!
Great! Thank you, Victoria for your review!
I don’t understand this recipe; I’ve tried it twice and it just doesn’t work. You can’t put that much sugar into hot butter, it instantly falls apart (even if you add a little at a time) and you end up with oily, burned-chocolate candy crystals. Disgusting. Total waste of good ingredients. Is there some liquid missing? Does this only work with watered-down, American-style butter? What’s the deal?
These were not good. I had the same problem as others where the oil separated and I ended up with a hard, lumpy crust and way too much oil in the middle. I followed the instructions, used good ingredients, and didn’t add any chocolate chips. I was excited about making these for my kids as it has whole wheat instead of AP flour.
Very sorry to hear that, RM. I’ve made these many times and never experienced those issues myself, so I’m truly stumped on a way to prevent those results. Baking can be finicky sometimes.
I made this yesterday for thanksgiving get together, it was such a hit. Thank you!
That is great! Thank you, Sona for your comment.
Like the recipe- I actually tried with using half the portion of all ingredients to make smaller one and somehow it came out like cookies, not brownie. Did I put it for too long? My oven is a bit weak that I always eneded up leaving food more than any other recipe so I put 28min for this.(i ve tried toothpick and it didnt come out clean at 25min) not sure which part was wrong-
These brownies are AMAZING! I made them without the chocolate chips – awesome, and with pecans – just as good if not better! Will definitely be making these again, and again!
Love to hear that! Thank you, for sharing your variation. I appreciate your review, Samantha!