My homemade brownies from scratch are fudgy, decadent, so chocolatey and the batter can be made in just minutes! This has been a fan-favorite for over 8 years and will have you ditching the box-mixes for good. Recipe includes a how-to video and lots of tips for shiny, crackly brownie tops!
Brownies From Scratch
I first shared this homemade brownie recipe years ago and it’s remained one of my personal favorites ever since, a classic right up there with my chocolate chip cookies and easy apple pie. It’s served as the base of many of my other brownie recipes on my site (perhaps most deliciously, my cheesecake brownies) and is perfect for beginners and advanced bakers alike.
At its core, this is really a no-frills, easy brownie recipe that really needs little introduction, but if you’re like me and love nerding out about nitty gritty recipe details, please read on (otherwise, hit that big “Jump to Recipe” button overhead)!
Why You Should Try THIS Brownie Recipe:
- Intense chocolate flavor. Melted chocolate, cocoa powder, and added chocolate chips put these brownies over the top. Add a pinch of instant coffee or espresso powder to the batter for an even more decadent chocolate experience.
- Shiny, crackly tops. While it may seem like just aesthetics, shiny and crackly tops are something that I personally love about brownies and that I wanted my own version to have. I spent years cracking the code on this and am very happy to share what I’ve found with you (it’s all about mixing the eggs and sugar… more on this below!).
- Easy, for when you need a chocolate fix in a hurry! My homemade brownies come together in just 10 minutes. Minimal mess & no mixer needed.
- Perfected recipe (true brownie texture!). This recipe was carefully (and repeatedly) tested to yield brownies that are dense, fudgy, and super chocolatey with the aforementioned shiny, crackly tops. I must’ve baked 100 different batches before landing on this version.
Ingredients for Homemade Brownies
We won’t go over every ingredient in detail (who has the time when there are brownies to be made!), but I think you should know what it is that truly makes these the best brownie recipe. The ingredients are common enough, but there are a few extras mixed in, along with a bit of technique… (more on that later).
Let’s dig in.
- Sugar. A blend of granulated and brown sugar is the way to go in almost every recipe, honestly, but especially here. The subtle molasses-ness of the brown sugar rounds out the flavor of the chocolate and adds extra chew to our brownies!
- Eggs… plus an extra yolk! The egg whites play a critical role in giving you brownies with a shiny, crackly top. When coupled with the sugar and whipped, you’ll be able to achieve exactly that boxed-brownie look. An extra yolk enriches the batter and makes the brownies even more tender and fudgy.
- Chocolate. For intensely chocolatey homemade brownies we build the batter on a base of melted chocolate and butter and then toss in some cocoa powder while the mixture is still warm (to help bloom it, as we do in my chocolate cake). Chocolate chips work in a pinch, but baking bars are best. Use semisweet baking bars, or, if you like a darker chocolate, use 60% cacao instead! Then, at the end, I do recommend mixing in some chocolate chips for an extra punch of chocolate.
- Instant coffee. If you’re someone who prefers dark chocolate, you’ll want to add this. It adds depth and enhances the chocolate flavor, particularly the more bitter flavors that you’ll find in dark chocolate. You can make things even more intense by swapping this with espresso powder, or if you’re not a fan feel free to omit it.
Sam’s Tip: These brownies were specifically and carefully designed to be dense and fudgy, and not cakey. However, if you like a lighter brownie you can stir in a quarter teaspoon of baking powder with the flour.
How to Make Brownies from Scratch
Whisk the eggs and sugar
I’ll usually melt my chocolate and butter together first (do this in intervals, stirring in between, just like when melting chocolate in the microwave). Then set this aside and combine your eggs and sugar and stir vigorously. Whisking together the eggs and sugar almost as if you were making meringue is critical to creating those shiny, crackly tops that you’ll see at the end!
The vigorous whisking can be an arm workout, but can absolutely be done by hand (usually takes me 60 seconds or so). You could alternatively use an electric mixer for this step!
Once the eggs are well-mixed, stir in your vanilla extract and salt.
Add the melted chocolate
Stir the melted chocolate into the batter. Everything should be thoroughly combined, but you don’t have to worry about whisking aggressively or vigorously, like you did with the eggs and sugar.
Finish the brownie batter & bake
Add the flour, followed by the chocolate chips. Once again, the batter just needs to be uniformly combined, no need to go crazy with mixing here! Once everything is combined, scrape your brownie batter into a 9×9″ baking pan, smooth it into an even layer (add a few more chocolate chips on top if you’d like, for good measure!) and bake!
SAM’S TIP: I recommend baking your brownies in a metal pan, as glass pans can take longer.
Frequently Asked Questions
An extra egg yolk, a bit of brown sugar, real melted chocolate, a bit less flour than you might expect, and no baking powder or baking soda all contribute to the rich fudginess of these brownies. If your brownies turn out cakey after following my recipe, it may be that your flour was accidentally over-measured.
After years of making homemade brownies from scratch, I can tell you with confidence the secret is following a good recipe. Use one that recommends vigorously whisking the eggs and sugar, enriches the batter with melted chocolate, and for good measure adds a pinch of instant coffee or espresso. Obviously I’m biased, but my recipe really does crack the code for perfect brownies, and I’m excited for you to try it.
Unfortunately, a straight substitution of the chocolate called for with white chocolate yields results that are too sweet and a bit oily. However, I do have a white chocolate brownie recipe that I recommend you try instead, or for a chocolate-less version try my blondies!
More Chocolate Desserts
This is truly the easiest, ultimate, best homemade brownie recipe. And I really think you are going to love it.
Enjoy!
Let’s bake together! I’ll be walking you through all the steps in my written recipe and video below! If you try this recipe, be sure to tag me on Instagram, and you can also find me on YouTube and Facebook
Fudgy Homemade Brownies from Scratch
Ingredients
- 12 Tablespoons (170 g) unsalted butter cut into Tablespoon-sized pieces
- 4 oz (113 g) semisweet chocolate bar chopped into small pieces
- ½ cup (50 g) natural cocoa powder (unsweetened)
- ½ teaspoon instant coffee grounds optional
- ¾ cup (150 g) granulated sugar
- ¾ cup (150 g) light brown sugar firmly packed
- 2 large eggs + 1 large egg yolk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (125 g) all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup (127 g) semisweet chocolate chips
Recommended Equipment
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F (175C) and line a 9×9 baking pan¹ with parchment paper²
- Combine butter and chopped chocolate in a large, microwave-safe bowl.12 Tablespoons (170 g) unsalted butter, 4 oz (113 g) semisweet chocolate bar
- Microwave in 25-second intervals, stirring well in between, until completely melted and smooth.
- Immediately add cocoa powder and instant coffee (if using), stir well.½ cup (50 g) natural cocoa powder (unsweetened), ½ teaspoon instant coffee grounds
- In a separate, medium-sized mixing bowl, combine sugars and eggs. Whisk vigorously, until well combined and lightened in color (at least 60 seconds of vigorous whisking, this ensures shiny, crackly tops! Feel free to use an electric mixer!).¾ cup (150 g) granulated sugar, ¾ cup (150 g) light brown sugar, 2 large eggs + 1 large egg yolk
- Stir in vanilla extract and salt.1 teaspoon vanilla extract, ½ teaspoon salt
- Drizzle chocolate mixture into egg mixture and stir until completely combined.
- Add flour, stir until completely combined.1 cup (125 g) all-purpose flour
- Stir in chocolate chips.¾ cup (127 g) semisweet chocolate chips
- Spread into prepared 9×9 pan.
- Bake in center rack of 350F (175C) oven for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out slightly fudgy, but not wet with batter.
- Allow to cool before cutting and serving (they'll be messy and seem underdone otherwise).
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.
I originally shared this brownie recipe on 02/01/2017. I’ve made small changes to the recipe to make the tops crackly (changed the step for beating the eggs well instead of mixing the batter well as a whole), and I’ve updated some of the photos and added a video and tried to make the post itself more informative.
JosieR
Hi, Sam– This is a wonderful recipe for homemade brownies. I am making them for my husband’s Men’s Club at our church tomorrow night–I made them once before for friends and I knew that this was the recipe I wanted to use for the Men’s Club. Thank you for all the great recipes and ideas!
Sugar Spun Run
Thank you so much for using my recipe again, Josie! I hope that they are a hit at the men’s club! 🙂
BW
I followed this recipe exactly as the recipe states and they came out good. BUT. The notes say if you bake in a glass dish the time should be 16-18 minutes. I checked after 20 and it wasn’t even warm yet. 10 more minutes: was soup then. 10 more minutes: beginning to fill out the pan but no way close to being done. I turned the heat up to 400F and did another 24 mins (checking 3 times at 8-minute intervals) and they finally set up and cooked. So in a glass 13×9 pan, total cooking time was 40 mins at 350F and 24 mins at 400F and they were still so gooey and runny it was more like lava cake than brownies, even after cooling on a rack for 30 mins. The best part is that crispy crust. Yum! The recipe is also sickeningly sweet. Next time I will probably cut the sugar by at least half, but that’s just me. If you like your treats so sweet it hurts, you will probably like this as is. I also butter the pan before placing parchment paper in so it isn’t as “wiggly”. I don’t know why, but my batter looked nothing like the video, it was very thick and didn’t pour out at all– more like a thick ball of dough I had to scrape out with a spatula and spread around. They have great flavor. The coffee adds a delicious flavor note and with the recipe so cloyingly sweet it really needs that subtle bitter note for balance. I also used salted butter so did not add any extra salt and that was fine. Will definitely make again but will adjust sweetness and cooking time & temperature so we don’t have to wait more than two hours for brownies between chilling time, cooking time, and cooling time. May try again without chocolate chips because they are so gooey already it just seemed like overkill. YMMV
Sam
Hi BW! I think you mis-read, the recipe actually states the brownies will need to bake longer in a glass dish. The 16-18 minutes is if you are baking in a 9×13 pan. If you are using a glass 9×13 pan they may need more time than the 16-18 indicated, but only a few minutes and definitely not over an hour. If you were using a 9×13 glass pan, something was definitely wrong if it took 64 minutes total. Between your description of the amount of time it needed to bake, the lava cake consistency, and the fact that your batter looked nothing like mine makes me think that something must have been mis-measured, I am wondering if maybe the chocolate was? It might be worth trying again. I really hope that helps and am happy to troubleshoot further.
BW
The note stating that a glass 9×13 pan takes longer than 16-18 minutes is why I didn’t check them the first time until 20 mins had passed. That’s four minutes past the low estimate so I thought it’d be a good place to start checking. But they took forever. And if I hadn’t turned up to 400F they might not have cooked at all. When following recipes, I always employ the mise-en-place method, so everything is laid out in order before I ever even begin. That way I don’t miss ingredients and I can see exactly where I am in a recipe at every step. So I know I got everything together in order in the right proportions, and I know I followed the steps. I measured with cups but weighed the chocolate chips in grams. They were still really tasty and the crust was excellent. I have never commented on any recipe before posting this but felt I needed to since the oven time was so drastically different. I wonder if my fridge is cooler than yours and it slowed them down that much more by chilling?
Sam
I am very glad you still enjoyed them! Even if they’d been chilled overnight it still shouldn’t have taken that long for them to bake. I’m really not sure what might have happened, but that’s not typical.
Lauren E
Hey Sam,
Can I use the same baking bar I used for the lava cakes? 60% Ghirardelli? Or do you think that will be too bitter?
Sugar Spun Run
Hi, Lauren! I think that 60% Ghiradelli will be fine. Keep me posted on how they turn out. 🙂
Dzeni
Hi Sam, love your recipes. I was wondering how much should I increase ingredients for pan size 21×15 (55x40cm)? Ty
Sugar Spun Run
Hi, Dzeni! It really depends on how thick you’d like your brownies. If doubled, this would fit a 9″ x 13″ pan perfectly. I have not baked it in a 21″ x 15″ pan myself, so my best guess would be to triple the recipe. Since I have not tried it myself, I can not provide you an exact bake time so I recommend that you keep an eye on it. Keep me posted on how your brownies turn out and what worked well. 🙂
Sandy
What brand pan is your favorite for baking these (Amazon?) and what other recipes do you use it for? Ok for lasagna or casseroles?
Sam
Hi Sandy! I prefer to use glass Pyrex dishes for lasagna or casseroles, for these brownies I usually use a Chicago Metallics 9″ metal baking pan, though I also like Oxo and Wilton. I hope that helps!
Cathi Koenig
Hi, I haven’t used this recipe yet but have added coffee before and it
amazingly enriches chocolate ! Can’t wait to try these !
(But I will lessen the sugar a bit)
Thanks !
Sugar Spun Run
Coffee makes such a difference. I hope that you enjoy the brownies when you do try it, Cathi! 🙂
Ashley
Could I use a milk chocolate baking bar instead of semi sweet? Thanks in advance!
Sugar Spun Run
Hi, Ashley! That will be fine. I hope that you enjoy them. 🙂
Jessy
I doubt anyone will read this today but I am bringing to a superbowl party later; should I chill after baking before using cookie cutters? Thanks!
Sugar Spun Run
Hi, Jessy! Chilled or room temperature brownies will be easier to cut using a cookie cutter. I hope that everyone loves them at your super bowl party! 🙂
Colleen
You were right I just made these brownies tonight and they are pet gooey Crinkled top Chocolate brownies!!🙂👍 .Ive tried many recipes but by far these are the best! I followed the directions exactly and these are perfectThank You for sharing!! ❤️❤️❤️.
Sugar Spun Run
Thank you so much, Colleen! I am so happy that the brownies turned out perfectly and that you enjoyed them. 🙂
Michelle
Am I refrigerate the batter overnight? And should I cover with plastic wrap?
Sugar Spun Run
You should be safe to store the brownie batter overnight as long as it is covered, Michelle. I hope that you enjoy them! 🙂
Diana De Vecchi
My batter was very thick, is this how it’s suppose to be? Thank you
Sugar Spun Run
Hi, Diana! Yes, the brownie batter is pretty thick. On the recipe post itself, you can watch the video to get a good idea of just how thick it is so you can compare it to yours. I hope that this helps! Let me know how they turn out! 🙂
Diana
You were right, they were the best brownies ever!! My family loved them!! Thank you😊
Sugar Spun Run
That is wonderful, Diana! I am so glad that everyone loved them! Thank you for trying my recipe. 🙂
Marcia
Is the bottom supossed to be firm?
Sam
Hi Marcia! I’m not sure exactly what you mean, the texture is pretty much the same throughout. The brownies should be firm enough to hold, but their texture is pretty fudgy and chewy.
Donna L Coleman
👏👏👏Yay…thank 😘you…walking into the kitchen now 🚶♀️🥄😋💗
Sugar Spun Run
I hope that you enjoy the brownies, Donna! Let me know how they turn out. 🙂
Donna L Coleman
Can I use salted butter?
Sugar Spun Run
Hi, Donna! Yes, you can. If you do, you just want to omit the additional salt listed on the recipe. I hope you enjoy the brownies. 🙂
Jennifer P
I made these because your biscuit recipe is by far the easiest & the best I’ve ever had or made HANDS DOWN!!!! They were so amazing!!! I didn’t have enough chocolate chips so I omitted the 3/4 cup & I used some cold brew I had instead of instant. I didn’t have enough brown sugar so I used tourmaline. My batter was not nearly as runny as yours I think because I added the flour in portions because I’m really messy & or because I added my eggs cold. Idk… I also added marshmallows that I needed to get rid of. But I’m telling you these still turned out MARVELOUS!!!!!! I can’t wait to make them the right way!!! I’ll # you on my instagram tomorrow when I post them!!!
Sam
I’m so happy you enjoyed the brownies, Jennifer! Love the addition of the marshmallows (and thank you for sharing your other substitutions, too!). I’ll look for them on Instagram, thank you so much for commenting, and Happy New Year!! 🙂