Best Ever Brownies Recipe

The Best Ever Brownies are the brownies that are ooey-gooey, loaded with fudge, have a crackling crust on top, are slightly chewy, and solidify your reasons for being a chocoholic. These are those brownies!

Image of: a white platter holding multiple chocolate brownies with melted fudge middles. In the background a blue table linen.
Serve them on a platter or from the pan, these brownies won’t last long.

It should go without saying that you’re only going to get the best ever brownies by making them from scratch. Knowing your ingredients, watching the process, and baking with love over oil, are key components to making the best brownies. But what are some other qualities in a good brownie?

Best Ever Brownie requirements

The best brownie recipe needs to be one that yields crisp, dense edges where the batter has kissed the pan during baking. It needs to have fudge-like consistency, but not so much that it falls apart in your hand while warm.

Melted chocolate should ooze out of every bite thanks to the addition of chocolate chunks in the batter. And while it should be sweet, there needs to be a balance of bitter notes from the use of rich cocoa powder.

That is at least our qualifications of a favorite brownie. We prefer the fudgy brownies. That is in our book the main component to some spectacular brownies.

Image of: Stack of three homemade brownies in accending levels.
Dripping with chocolate and soaked in love. These brownies are truly the best ever. Your friends and family will agree!

How to Make Brownies from Scratch

Simple ingredients make for moist, luscious brownies with a thick chocolate flavor. Gather these ingredients at the store and keep them on hand to make your brownies whenever the craving strikes!I know that making things from scratch many times is super difficult.

We’ve been conditioned though to think that making it from a box is somehow easier. Really, it is not that difficult. Bonus factor is that you get to have complete control over your ingredients. Want to make them with your favorite chocolate?

No problem. Making brownies yourself really gives you plenty of opportunity to make these and tailor them to your needs. Ready for even more-so a bonus? These can be made gluten-free!!! Yesssss. Simply swap this out with gluten-free 1-1 flour and you’ll be golden. Be sure that this flour blend has xanthan gum in it as well. It’s best if it’s is a blend of rice, tapioca and cornstarch is our favorite blend personally.Image of: a hand holding the best brownie ever with melted chocolate coming out the middle.

Tips for making this brownie recipe from scratch

  1. Always start with room temperature ingredients. In any baking, the temperature and order in which you combine ingredients is crucial. Making homemade brownies starts with creaming the butter and sugar together. For this you need room temperature butter. Too cold and your butter will not cream.
  2. Don’t MELT.. Melted butter and your sugar ends up getting dissolved and prevents the soft fluffy clouds of butter from forming.
  3. Eggs. The same goes for eggs. Room temperature eggs added to room temperature butter ensures the batter is mixed evenly and will result in a more even rise during the baking process.
A glass bowl of brownie batter with a white spatula.
The best brownie batter should be between fudge and cake-batter consistency.

How to measure flour correctly

Spoon flour for measuring, never scoop directly. This goes for the flour and the cocoa powder. If you want to get really precise, we recommend measuring by weight with a kitchen scale. However, spooning your ingredients into a measuring cup and leveling off with the straight edge of a knife will suffice.

Spooning the dry ingredients gives them the ability to breathe and fluff.Whereas scooping directly from the bag or container will result in a packed version of the ingredients. Thus, you end up with more in quantity than your recipe calls for which will result in hard bricks of brownies. We do not want that.After they come out of the oven you must do one more thing.

Wait for your brownies to cool. I know it’s hard to wait, but the cooling process solidifies the binding agents within the batter. Allowing your brownies to cool completely before cutting is one way to ensure they do not fall apart in your hand. Once they are cooled, you can cut them easily and reheat in a bowl topped with no-churn honey ice cream for a warm hot-fudge brownie sundae!

Image of: overhead view of crackling brownie tops, served on a white platter.
The signature cracking brownie top and fudgy middle are reminiscent qualities of the boxed brownies we grew up on. Only now they’re completely homemade and that much better!
Image of: a hand holding the best brownie ever with melted chocolate coming out the middle.

Best Brownies Ever

These brownies are fudgy and chewy, loaded with dark chocolate chunks, and topped with a crackled crust that'll make your heart swoon!
5 from 4 votes
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Servings 9
Calories 320 kcal

Ingredients
 
 

  • 4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter room temperature
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 eggs
  • ½ cup all purpose flour
  • ½ cup Dutch process cocoa powder
  • ¼ tsp baking soda
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • 1 cup bittersweet chocolate chunks

Instructions
 

  • Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Line the bottom AND up the sides of a 9-inch x 9-inch baking pan with parchment paper.
  • Beat together the butter, sugar, and vanilla in the bowl of a hand or stand mixer. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well between each addition.
    A glass bowl of smoothed butter, sugar, and egg.
  • Stir together the flour, cocoa powder, and salt. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture. Mix in the baking soda.
    A glass bowl of flour, cocoa powder, and salt.
  • Mix in the chocolate chunks with a wooden spoon or spatula.
    A glass bowl of brownie batter with a white spatula.
  • Pour the thick batter into the prepared dish and spread evenly.
    A 9x9 inch non-stick pan lined with parchment paper, filled with brownie batter.
  • Bake for 25 minutes, until brownies begin to pull away from the side of the pan. If you like your brownies less fudgy, add 5-7 minutes of additional baking time.
    best ever brownies with chocolate chunks on a white platter

Notes

Recipe inspired by Something Swanky

Nutrition

Calories: 320kcalCarbohydrates: 43gProtein: 4gFat: 18gSaturated Fat: 11gCholesterol: 63mgSodium: 118mgFiber: 3gSugar: 33g
Tried this recipe? Mention @itsyummi or tag #itsyummirecipe!

16 Comments

  1. You are definitely on a roll, girl! Congratulations on every bit of that good fortune. Maybe when we meet in NOLA, next week, some of that will rub off on me! I’m also Pinning these luscious-looking brownies to my Halloween board. 🙂

  2. 5 stars
    I’m so excited that so many wonderful things are happening in your life, I’m smiling vicariously! Wishing you continued happiness and success.

  3. 5 stars
    YAY for all the great things going on!!!! 😀
    Those brownies look fabulous!!!! OMGOSH! I need some NOW!!! LOL

  4. Sometimes it is nice to simply feel happy for other people’s good fortune. I am so glad I came over to read this. Good for you…and may it continue! Your brownie wouldn’t last two minutes in my house….my teenage sons are dessert vacuums. What did you use to get that crispy line of powdered sugar across them?

    1. Thank you, Kristen! I wasn’t trying to induce jealousy or anything. It just feels SO stinkin’ good to have things going right for a change 🙂
      The “crispy line of powdered sugar” is easy peasy! I used a bench scraper to cover half of each brownie as I used my sugar shaker to dust the other half. Anything with a nice straight edge will work… even a piece of paper!

  5. 5 stars
    Wow! you really have had an exceptional month! Congrats on all of it! I love to bake so I am really happy I found you in the swap today. I can;t wait to check out your Snickers cupcakes—that is my all time favorite candy. Thank you so much for sharing your yummy recipes with us. *(Just to give you a heads up—the blog link to my site listed in the swap is incorrect–it needs a www. in front of it in case you feel like stopping by to say hello!

    1. Thanks so much for stopping by! Those Snickers cupcakes are my dieting downfall! Thanks for letting me know about the link to your site, too!

  6. 5 stars
    Us WI gals – we have to stick together – through thin brownies and chunky brownies. And all brownies in between.

    I love what you did with my prompt – you are amazing. I’m excited to visit your blog regularly and cook and bake new things.

    Thanks for taking it on!!!

    Joy

    1. Wisconsin girls are a RARE and very special breed, Joy! 🙂
      Thanks for the great prompt, and thanks for stopping by, too!

  7. Your month sounds amazing! Congrats on your engagement and winning all of the contests! Woo hop! I especially congratulate the cat for not coughing up a fur ball ! Haha 🙂 Sorry it took me so long to respond to your post. I literally could not find it. I should have known that the wonderful brownies were the ticket. So, the brownies feed nine. I figure that will take me a good day and a half to finish. Unless it’s one of those non-golden days. Then, I give it an hour and a half 🙂

    1. Bwahaha! Michele, do you know what a “gigglesnort” is? I hope so, because your comment just made it do it! 🙂

  8. sucha great read and congrats…a wonderful feeling to enjoy other’s happiness. Glad to meet you through the SSS. I may have to try these brownies.

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