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Our Homemade Brownies are thick, rich, fudgy, and they taste just like they came from a bakery! No more box mixes, because these are seriously the best brownies from scratch you’ll ever try.
In the past I’ve shared things like the fact that I’d never in my life eaten oatmeal (the horror!), I’ve blogged about how one time I drank salad dressing from a ziploc bag because…I don’t know why.
I have shared some deep and disturbing things with you and here I am with another…
I generally prefer brownies that are made from a box mix. The shame! The horror!
No worries, I’ve totally changed my ways!
I’m about to share with you the perfect homemade brownies recipe and I can almost guarantee you’ll never go back to the box mix again.
These. Are. Good.
These brownies are perfectly thick and fudgy. Basically a chocolate bomb going off in your mouth. If you like fudgy brownies, you’re going to love these.
Ingredient Notes:
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Brownie Mix – This homemade brownie mix contains most of the usual brownie batter ingredients like cocoa powder, flour, sugar, eggs, baking powder, and vanilla extract.
Espresso Powder – Optional but highly recommended! It really adds a lot of depth to the chocolate flavor. This will NOT make your homemade brownies taste like coffee. It’ll just add lots of extra fudgy flavor to this brownie recipe!
Chocolate Chips – I like to add lots of semi-sweet chocolate chips to the brownie batter! They will met perfectly to add even more chocolatey flavor to these fudgy brownies.
What Readers are Saying!
“Oh my gosh these brownies are so gooey, fudgy and rich! I’ve been trying to make fudgy brownies for a while but I always manage to cook them too long and they end up cake-like. But not with these bad boys! Thanks for the recipe!” – Kayla
How to Make Brownies From Scratch:
Melt the butter on the stove and then whisk in the sugar. We don’t want to caramelize the sugar – just melt it into the butter.
Add the hot butter mixture to a mixing bowl and let it cool for just a few minutes before adding the eggs.
Beat in the eggs and cocoa powder with a little vanilla. This mixture is going to look divine, so go ahead and take a little lick if you must. Just be careful – once you start, it’s hard to stop!
Next, add in your flour, baking powder, a little salt, and the secret weapon: espresso powder.
Helpful Tip!
Baking With Chocolate
If you don’t have espresso powder, you can skip it. However, I highly recommend keeping some on hand for baking with chocolate. It doesn’t make your treats taste like coffee, it just enhances the rich chocolate flavor. Highly recommend. This is the brand I use.
Mix that all together by hand and then stir in some chocolate chips. I like to use dark or semi-sweet, but my family prefers milk. Use whichever variety you like best. The brownie batter will be thick.
Spread the brownie batter into a greased or parchment-lined 9×13 baking dish and bake for about 30 minutes. You want the edges to be firmly set and the center to still be a bit soft. I like to use a tester 1 inch from the edge – when the edges are fully cooked through, your center should be nicely fudgy and delicious.
Let the homemade brownies cool for as long as you can stand it before cutting.
I use my dusting wand to lightly sprinkle on some powdered sugar. It’s not necessary but it makes the brownies oh so pretty!
FAQs:
You can store these homemade brownies in an airtight container at room temperature for 3 to 5 days!
We normally use Hershey’s Special Dark, which is a mixture of Dutch and natural. It makes extra fudgy brownies! If you’re choosing just one, use Dutch processed.
We like to test these homemade brownies about 1-2 inches from the edge of the pan and pull them when the tester comes out clean. If you test them directly in the center of the pan, the edges will be overdone by the time the tester comes out clean. Testing near the edges ensures you end up with nice edge pieces and fudgy centers.
MORE BROWNIE RECIPES!
Nutella Brownies: If you like extra fudgy brownies, try these!
Marshmallow Brownies: Wait til you see the layers on these brownies!
Reese’s Brownies: Brownie bottom + peanut butter frosting + chocolate fudge frosting + Reese’s!
Mississippi Mud Brownies: I love the marshmallows on here!
M&M Brownies: These brownies are packed full of M&M candies!
Recipe for easy homemade brownies:
Homemade Brownies
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter
- 2 1/4 cups sugar
- 4 large eggs
- 1 1/4 cups cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon espresso powder optional
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9×13 baking dish.
- In small saucepan over low heat, melt butter completely. Stir in sugar and continue cooking for 1-2 minutes, stirring constantly. Do not allow sugar mixture to boil.
- Pour butter mixture into a large bowl or stand mixer, and cool for 2 minutes. Beat in cocoa powder, eggs, salt, baking powder, espresso powder, and vanilla extract. Mix until well combined.
- Stir in the flour and chocolate chips until well combined.
- Spread into prepared pan (batter will be very thick and sticky) and bake for about 30 minutes, until a tester comes out mostly clean. The edges should be set and the center should still look slightly moist, but not uncooked. Cool on a wire rack.
Tips & Notes:
Nutrition Information:
This post was originally published in October of 2009. It was updated with new tips in October of 2020. Original photo below:
Tia says
What a great recipe! I made this for the first time on Halloween to take over to my family’s house so that the grown-ups could have adult treats while passing out goodies to the little ones. They were a hit! I actually didn’t even get any more after the first taste I had before passing them out – but I’ll just take that as a compliment! I did not have a overly “cakey” issue as some of the other comments mentioned – they were gooey and wonderful, much to my delight – because it was the moist appearance in the picture on Pinterest that drew me to the recipe.
I now have two batches going in the oven to give out to a few that heard about them and didn’t get to try (I will be sure to save a few more myself this time:)).
Karly says
Definitely save some for yourself next time! 🙂
liz says
I have made these brownies about 6 times in the last few months. I followed the recipe to a tee and they came out absolutely amazing every time. For those who had trouble, make sure your measuring you flour correctly. That could cause them to come out cake like. Thank you for sharing this recipe. My family’s favorite brownie recipe.
Karly says
Glad to hear that! 🙂
Rachelle says
Wayyyyyyy to much cocoa powder in my opinion. They also turned out gooey as many other people mentioned. Sad this recipe didn’t turn out 🙁
Karly says
Sorry to hear you weren’t a fan of these.
Dawn MH says
What kind of cocoa did you use (dutch or natural, brand)??
Karly says
I generally use Hershey’s Special Dark. Otherwise, dutch works best for these.
Krysta says
Very very good! Just made these and they are wonderful. The kids loved them and gobbled them up quickly. Wouldn’t change anything. Will be making these again!
Mila says
Can you please please.. consider using gram measurements too? It saves me always having to convert, each website is so different it is hard to know how to make them right with no proper measurements and no idea which site is right, some don’t even have converting for every ingredient.. cups here all vary, so we use grams that never vary or change.
Karly says
Hi Mila!
I’m afraid that I don’t use grams myself and to convert I would just use an online converter myself. You’ll want to find an online converter that you trust and use that.
Sorry I’m not more help!
Jamie M. says
Just made these brownies tonight and they are fabulous! I must admit that I used to love boxed brownies but now they all taste like cardboard to me! I love love love homemade brownies! This recipe is slightly different from my go-to recipe, which uses half brown sugar, half white sugar. However, these brownies were equally fudgey and decadent! I didn’t have any issues with them being cakey or dry but they were definitely done after only 25 minutes at 350 F in my oven. My baking powder is also slightly old 😉 I also mixed them by hand (burning off my brownie calories, right?!) and am not sure if that could’ve made a difference. And I used milk chocolate chips 🙂
PS- Karly, you should try the browned butter brownies from Bon Appetit’s recipe! Very similar to your recipe except you brown the butter before adding the sugar and you mix everything in the one pot! Thanks for sharing your recipe!
Karly says
Ooh, I’ll definitely have to try those. Browned butter is amazing! 🙂
molly says
these were AMAZING!!!!!! sooo flippin good!!!
Karly says
Glad you enjoyed them!
Mandie @ Mandie's Kitchen says
W.O.W. Such fudginess! These brownies (and your nutella brownies) look so good, it’s not hard to imagine why they are such a popular recipe!
Alice says
Hi, I was suggested these by a friend and they look delicious any advice as I am used to cooking in grams not cups? thanks
Karly says
There are lots of online conversion charts you can use to convert this to grams. 🙂
Miss Bakecelot says
This recipe is so great. Thank you! I’ve never been successful baking with drinking chocolates before but this came out better than expected ????. And they weren’t cakey at all. They were gooey and chewy just how I like them!
Karly says
Wonderful! Glad you liked them. 🙂
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Amethyst Moon says
I made these as my first homemade brownies and they came out fabulous! I was really surprised how easy it was, and like you, I will never go back to a box mix. These are way too good!
Thanks so much for the awesome recipe. I shared it on my blog. http://lifemusiclaughter.blogspot.com/2014/10/why-did-i-wait-so-long-to-make-homemade.html
Karly says
@Amethyst Moon,
So glad you love these as much as we do! 🙂
Avianti says
Those brownies look perfect!
Anna says
Well biscuits and gravy. I was so excited about this recipe because the pictures look so ooey and gooey shove-in-my-face-right-now-delicious. I’ve tried probably at least 10 different homemade recipes, but none compare to the box! Mmmm boxed brownie batter…. Anyway, generally I dislike baking anything from a box, but brownies are the exception to that rule. The batter for this recipe tasted JUST like a box kind, so I was super excited. But alas, mine turned out more like cake. Mwah mwah mwaaaahhhhh. Taste is still decent. Will try again with less bake time. I did 25 this time, will go for 20 next. 🙂
Karly says
@Anna,
I hope the lowered bake time helps!
julia says
if tour using a mixer try mixing by hand sometimes a mixer just adds to much air to brownies and they end up more like cake
Karly says
Good tip!