I’ve tried lots of brownie recipes: Boxes, scratch, frosted, plain, nuts, chips, fudge … Each of them has something to like, but depending on my mood I might want a change of pace.
Not any more. My wife found this recipe, and it’s perfect. I’m done looking. This is the brownie recipe that I’ll use from now on.
Ingredients
1½ cups sugar
¾ cup flour
¾ cup cocoa powder (see note below)
3 eggs
¾ cup butter, melted
¾ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (see note below)
Directions
A NOTE ON CHOCOLATE: You’ll notice the list of ingredients is very short. That means the quality of the chocolate makes a huge difference. The chocolate flavor is front-and-center — not the sugar, not the richness, the chocolate. I used Ghirardelli unsweetened cocoa powder, and Ghirardelli semi-sweet chocolate chips.
The assembly is about as easy as you can get. Combine the sugar, flour, cocoa, eggs and melted butter and mix.
Do this by hand, until the dry ingredients are just incorporated into the wet, and stop. You don’t need to beat it, and in fact want to avoid producing gluten from the flour. (Kneading flour produces gluten, the springy protein that makes bread chewy.)
Stir in the chocolate chips.
Line a 9×13 baking dish with parchment. I over-did it a little bit here, because I wanted to be absolutely sure it didn’t stick. As long as you cover the bottom you should be good, as it will pull away from the edges while baking.
Pour the batter and spread it out. Don’t try to spread it like mayo on bread, or you’ll move the parchment around. Poke at it with the tip of a rubber spatula.
Bake at 325° for 20-30 minutes. It’s done when a toothpick inserted in the tallest part comes out clean. Keep in mind you’ve got chips in there. If you hit one with the toothpick it will have melted chocolate on it. You might need to poke a couple of spots to make sure you aren’t hitting a chip.
Very carefully lift the parchment out of the baking dish. Get a spare set of hands if you can.
Peel the edges and let cool for a few minutes before slicing.
Pour yourself a glass of milk, and that’s it.
Quick question while you’re here:
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184 Comments
Hi Drew! I just made these brownies today, but they came out looking a bit flat. They’re only about 3/4 inch high and the top doesn’t look like yours in the picture (I got a 9 x 13 inch pan though). Mine are dark brown on the top, not light brown. And its very hard to see the chocolate chips. Is it because I used Hershey’s unsweetened cocoa powder and Hershey’s semi-sweet chocolate chips? Or is it because I didn’t put in any salt (I used unsalted butter)? The taste isn’t bad though.
Emily, mine weren’t more than an inch high either, so I think yours were probably about the same. These are closer to fudge than to cake.
As for the taste, if you used unsalted butter and didn’t add any salt, the taste would be a little bland. And like I said, there’s not much else in these, so the quality of the chocolate is going to make a big difference.
I’ve seen taste tests where they make the same recipe with different brands of chocolate and the results are never even close. There might be some personal preferences among the various premium brands, but the “mainstream” brands — Hershey and Nestle — are never even close.
I’d really love to hear what you think if you do these again with different chocolate.
I tried these today, and OMG!!!!!! We have decided to rename the PMS killers in our house!!!! So simple but so amazingly good!!!!
I made these a few times now. I have searched for years for the perfect Brownie recipe. This is it and my search is over.
I recently made a new friend who is a master at just about everything. She is in many ways the perfect woman. On our first visit to her house she gave us brownies with ice cream for desert.
After making this recipe for my family I knew I had to share it with her.
Her kids will now not eat brownies made with the old recipe but insist that she uses the one that I gave her.
It made my day that I could contribute in such a special way – thanks for that
I’ve heard the debate around nuts or no nuts (in brownies) so many times. Personally – I think a Brownie without nuts (especially Pecan) is just not a REAL brownie (wink)
I love your blog and I LOVE trying out your recipes!
Keep it coming. I can’t wait until my daughter is old enough to start cooking with me!
I followed your directions exactly but they turned out a little cakey! Tasty, but definitely on the cakey side. The only thing that I did differently was leave it in for 25 minutes and added the dry ingredients to the eggs and then the butter last. Could that have made the difference?
Kira, it’s amazing the difference it can make what order you add the ingredients. In my latest newsletter, which is going out today, I linked to a couple of articles about Hervé This, a French scientist who studies cooking. Another article that I didn’t link to says:
He’s spent his life studying how eggs work in recipes, and gets into some hard-core science. For a more approachable view, Jenni has a great comparison of different mixing methods over at Pastry Chef Online.
I’m reading through all the comments while my brownies are baking and am suddenly afraid they won’t turn out! I have to remember to read all the comments before I try a recipe to make sure I get all the extra tips found in there.
My friend and I have come up with an unofficial “Perfect Brownies” description, and we have long been trying to find a recipe that measures up. I’ve been making boxed brownies for years (*gasp*, I know), because I love how they turn out… just enough gooey with that crispy almost sparkley top. It’s been quite the adventure trying to find a “from scratch” recipe that delivers similar results. But as soon as I saw your picture, I knew this was going to be the one. Only a few more minutes until they come out and I can measure them against our perfect brownie list. Haha.
Thanks for posting this recipe!
Oh, and the perfect brownie does NOT include nuts. Too much texture takes away from the essence that is a wonderful brownie.
I guess I had nothing to worry about. The brownies turned out AMAZING! I will never use another recipe again.
And, thanks to a little oversight, I left the whole pan of them at home instead of bringing them to my event… so I get to enjoy them all myself.
Hi Drew! I made these brownies again using Ghirardelli cocoa powder and semi sweet chocolate chips instead of Hershey’s. They were soooo yummy! They still don’t look the same as yours, but they’re so good. I doubled the ingredients and made two batches. Tomorrow I’m bringing them to my friends. I’m going to have fun watching them fight over the brownies. Thank you so much!
Oh yes, you “accidentally” left them at home. Whatever you say.
Emily, like I said, when you’ve only got a few ingredients the quality really matters. I used to think Hershey’s was chocolate.
Just wanted to say my fiance and I absolutely love these brownies! We use Hershey’s cocoa powder & Tollhouse nestle semi sweet choc chips. We used a different cocoa powder while visiting family over Easter, and it was still great, but not as good as the Hershey’s one. Thanks so much for this fantastic recipe!
Robyn, try it with better chocolate. Ghirardelli is pretty easy to find, and really makes a difference. If you like them now, you’ll love them with the good stuff.
I made these today for a party. They exceeded my expectations! Thanks so much for doing the leg work in creating this!
I made those brownies yesterday and they were FANTASTIC! I will admit that I added 1/2 tsp salt and 1tsp vanilla, but they were insane. It was my last day of a baking class, and the teacher said we could all bring in our own recipes instead of doing the one from the book, so I brought yours. Even she asked me for the recipe at the end of class. Thanks again for another awesome recipe!
Jessie, have your teacher email me. I’m working on something, and I’d love to have a baking teacher involved.
I want to experiment with all your recipes now! I’ve only ever baked the Tollhouse recipe for chocolate chip cookies so when I was asked to make brownies for a bake-off (Betty Crocker need not apply), I was nervous in finding a good recipe (though I’m pretty good at following recipes, in general).
I was nervous, and almost had a freak out about salt vs. unsalted butter (the second comment reassured me that my choice was good) and was convinced it would either end up undercooked or burnt to a crisp.
Just had one, and think maybe, just maybe I may have a winning chance at the bake off. (Undercooked, in case you were wondering, but just a bit.)
I use the brownie recipe on the back of the round box of GHIRARDELLI sweet chocolate. After I tried that recipe, it became THE recipe for me, and I have never strayed. I like my brownies classic, which means that I omitt the chocolate chips the recipe calls for. This is my daughter’s signature dish. When she was very little, I taught her how to make these brownies from scratch, and now she makes Arinna’s Special Brownies whenever there is an occasion at school. It did wonders for her self esteem, and she is always eager to learn how to cook something new.
i’ve tried it d very day i saw d receipe it tastes AMAZING !!!!!
Wow look soooo delicious i will try this..thank you for sharing..
i made these a few days ago, with hershey’s cocoa powder and nestle mini choc. chips (because thats what i had) and they were amazing.
i’m definitely going to make them again with better chocolate.
but let me just say, my mom’s boyfriend ate a huge one in a brownie ice cream sundae, and he is NOT a dessert person at all.
in his words “i ate all of it, and that NEVER happens.”
so, this is definitely THE best brownie recipe ever. thank you for sharing!!
Brittany, I’d love to hear from you again after you make them with better chocolate, see what you think.
Where would I find the Ghirardelli cocoa powder and chocolate chips?? I have to ,ake brownies for church on Sunday and I wanna try this recipe so badly!
Oh! And about how much do they cost?
JeAndra, they carry Ghirardelli at my local grocery store. Sometimes they don’t have the chips, so I have to get them at World Market. You can mail-order both, if you really want them. I don’t know that I’d try it during the weather we’re having right now, though.
As for the price, I don’t even count the flour, cocoa and sugar, so three eggs, a stick of butter and some chocolate chips. Depends on how close you live to a farm, and how much you spend on the chocolate.
Hi, made these today but they turned out more cakey than brownie with the crisp crust but they were YUMMY! I suspect might have to do with the fact that the cocoa I used was Cadbury rather than Ghiradelli since we dont get that brand here! The only other brands we get here are Hintz and Hersehey which do not also seem to be great ones to use, sigh! My sugar didn’t melt so I could tatste the sugar granules. They added great texture to the cake {rather than brownie
}. Do you think it makes sense to powder the sugar before adding it?
brownies are my Achilles heel, never seem to get them right! Wonder what I am doing wrong? They tatse great but they are not brownies. Not sure where I messed up!
Manisha, my guess would be you beat the dough too much and developed the gluten in the flour. My wife figured out (before either of us knew the chemistry of it enough to know why) that beating cake batter more made it rise higher.
Are you using white granulated sugar, or something like raw or turbinado sugar? I use granulated and it’s never been a problem.
I found your recipe on stumble, and decided to try it! Let me just say that, my family isn’t big on sweets (except for the children) and it was GONE. This is really a great brownie recipe, and I am DEFINITELY going to continue to use this from now on!
(I used nestle and Hershey’s chocolate chips and cocoa, and they came out beautiful!)
Once again, Thanks so much!
those look incredible, and they must taste amazing
I came across this recipe will looking on the BBC website for lactose free recipes .
So I decided to make them but with a couple of slight alterations.
First of all you cant get that type of cocoa here in the UK (or if you can I don’t know where) so I used Green and Black organic free trade cocoa, and I used 95% cocoa chocolate to make the choc chips (just breaking up a bar of it).
The biggest change was that instead of melted butter I used a dairy free spread, I cant have butter as I’m lactose intolerant, other wise the ingredients are the same.
Well it turned out absolutely fantastic, its first time I’ve been able to have something chocolatey in ages. My girlfriend loves them despite not liking dark chocolate, my 2 children adore them, and I’m looking forward to sharing with all my friends and family.
Steve, I’m glad I don’t normally have to deal with restrictions. I wouldn’t have guessed that substitution would have worked, but I’m glad it did.
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