Perfect Fudgy Brownies Recipe

This fudgy brownie recipe is the best I’ve made! These irresistibly rich chocolate brownies are quick, easy to make, and so much better than the boxed mixes! Our readers love this recipe. Just read the reviews!

For years, I searched for the perfect homemade brownie recipe. I wanted brownies with super fudgy and slightly gooey middles that taste intensely chocolaty with gorgeous crackly tops. Today, I can confidently say this is it! These irresistibly rich chocolate brownies are quick, easy, and truly the best I’ve made. And, our readers agree, with so many of them calling this “the best brownie recipe.”

I bet you already have everything you need in your kitchen to make them! I can’t wait for you to try these incredible homemade brownies! Prepare for fudgy middles, crinkly tops, and a rich chocolate brownie taste. If baking for one or two, try our brownie in a mug, or try these one-bowl brownies for slightly sweeter, chewier brownies.

Key Ingredients

• Cocoa Powder: Cocoa powder makes these brownies easy, reliable, and ridiculously delicious. I’ve tried brownie recipes with melted chocolate and always come back to this recipe that skips the melted chocolate and uses cocoa powder instead. I love cocoa brownies so much! Use any variety of unsweetened cocoa in this recipe (really!). I’ve successfully used natural, Dutch-processed, and even raw cacao in this recipe. They all have a slightly different flavor profile. For a chocolate flavor similar to Oreo cookies, try Dutch cocoa. For the richest, most chocolatey brownies, use natural 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: This 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: These add richness and provide structure to the brownies. I add them cold, so there is no need to take them out of the fridge in advance!
• Flour: These easy brownies need a small amount of all-purpose 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 Bob’s Red Mill in this recipe).

How to Make the Best Brownies

We will make our brownie batter in a saucepan, which makes this recipe easier and will give you fewer dishes (a major win in my book!).

The secret to the best brownies is mixing HOT butter with sugar and cocoa powder. The hot butter brings out the rich chocolate flavor of the cocoa and heats the sugar, which leads to a beautiful, shiny top after baking. You will melt the butter in a saucepan and immediately stir in sugar, cocoa powder, vanilla extract, and salt. Then, after a minute or two of letting it cool, you can add the cold eggs and, finally, the flour.

The batter is thick, but that’s okay! 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 (you can see our blondies batter in our blondies recipe, which is similar to brownies but made with a vanilla batter).

I bake brownies in a 325°F oven until the edges look set and the middle slightly underdone. I like using a toothpick to tell when my brownies are ready to come out of the oven and look for a small amount of batter left on the toothpick. The brownies continue to firm up as they cool, so even though they may look underdone, they will be perfect when cooled to room temperature.

And there you have it, my absolute favorite homemade brownies. I hope you try them. Oh, and if you were wondering, you can add chocolate chips to the batter before baking! Go for it!