Ridiculously Fudgy Brownies

These homemade fudgy brownies are so much better than the box! Since we use cocoa powder, they are easy and come together fast. I bet you already have everything you need to make our brownie recipe in your kitchen right now!

Watch the Video

This recipe makes some of the best brownies I’ve ever made (that’s true for our readers, too). They are quick to make from scratch, don’t need special equipment, and have the most wonderful fudgy middles with crinkly, shiny tops.

These brownies taste like rich dark chocolate, which I love. See this easy brownie recipe for slightly sweeter brownies that bake to be a bit thicker with chewy edges.

Key Ingredients

• Cocoa powder: I love cocoa brownies! It’s what makes our brownies so delicious. Use any unsweetened cocoa powder in this recipe. I’ve used natural, Dutch-processed, and even raw cacao in this recipe. For a chocolate flavor similar to Oreo cookies, try Dutch cocoa.
• Butter: We use 100% butter in the recipe. If you use salted butter, leave out the salt called for in our recipe below.
• Granulated sugar: Helps with our shiny top, and balances the bitterness of unsweetened cocoa powder. Brown sugar works in our recipe, but you might lose the crinkly top.
• Eggs add richness and provide structure to the brownies.
• All-purpose flour: These easy brownies need a small amount of flour for structure. We want extra fudgy brownies, so keeping the flour to a minimum helps. For gluten-free, read through the comments (many readers have used a gluten-free flour blend like the Bob’s Red Mill in this recipe).

How to Make the Best Brownies

We’re going to make our brownie batter in a saucepan. Easy and less dishes!

The trick to the best brownies is to combine HOT butter with sugar and cocoa powder. I melt my butter in a saucepan and then immediately stir in sugar, cocoa powder, vanilla extract, and salt. Then, after a minute or two of letting it cool, I add my eggs one at a time and then the flour.

As the brownies bake, this heated sugar moves up to the top of the brownies when they are in the oven, which is how they get that shiny top. The hot butter also blooms the cocoa powder, making our brownies taste better.

This brownie batter is thick. I usually tell you to avoid over-mixing batters, but that’s not the case with these cocoa brownies. The same goes for blondies batter. Here’s our blondies recipe, which are like brownies, but made with a vanilla batter.

I bake my brownies in a 325°F oven until the edges are set and the middle looks slightly underdone. See more tips below and our video for reference on what the baked brownies should look like.

Note: This brownies recipe originally used a double-boiler, but we’ve simplified the method to make it easier and quicker, using fewer dishes while maintaining the same results. For previous readers who love the original method, see the tips section of the recipe below.

How to Tell When Brownies are Done

Telling when brownies are ready to come out of the oven can be a little tricky, but don’t worry, with my tips you’ll be a brownie pro in no time! Watch our video for some visual cues.

1. Use a timer. These brownies take 20 to 30 minutes, so set the timer for 20 minutes, and go from there. This way, you can watch them closely towards the end of cooking.
2. Use a toothpick. Stick it into the center of the pan and pull it out. If there is a lot of wet batter on the toothpick, they need more time. If you only see a small amount of wet batter and the hole where you inserted the toothpick is visible, they are finished baking. If there’s nothing on the toothpick, you might have overbaked them, so definitely take them out of the oven.
3. Use your eyes. Perfectly baked brownies will look a little underbaked in the middle. As the brownies cool, they set up nicely. So when the edges look dry, and the center slightly underdone, take them out of the oven. Even if it ends up that you took them out a minute early, an underbaked square in the middle of the pan is much better than the whole pan being overbaked. Plus, I’d happily eat the underbaked middle if I were at your house.

Why Did My Brownies Take Longer to Bake?

After sharing this brownie recipe years ago, some readers have found that they needed to bake their batch for 5 to 10 minutes more than we suggest in the recipe. These take 20 to 25 minutes in our oven. Still, ovens vary, so use our tips above for telling when your brownies are ready to come out of the oven. And remember, brownies continue to cook and firm up as they cool, so don’t be afraid to take your brownies out of the oven with the center still a little underdone.

Storing Brownies

Keep your baked brownies in an airtight container at room temperature for 2 to 3 days. Or store them in the fridge for 2 weeks. You can also freeze brownies for up to 3 months! I like wrapping them individually so I can take one or two out of the freezer.