There is nothing better to have in your dessert repertoire than a simple brownie recipe. This brownie is worth not opening a box of brownie mix for. It is really easy to make and people get really impressed when you tell them that the brownie that they are eating is homemade. Can you mix together some chocolate and sugar? You can? Then you can make these bad boys. The reason why I think that having a good brownie recipe up your sleeve is because it can be the foundation of so many other things. You can use it as the base of an ice cream sundae covered in caramel or chocolate sauce. Or you can crumble it up and use it as the base of a trifle. Or you can sit on the couch and watch reruns of Weeds and eat brownies until you cannot eat brownies any more. No one will know.
*adapted from Simply Recipes
1 1/4 sticks butter
1 1/4 cups sugar
3/4 cups plus 2 Tablespoons cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 eggs
1/2 cup flour
On top of a double boiler, melt the butter, sugar, cocoa and salt. Melt, stirring occasionally. Let the mixture cool a bit.
Add the eggs one at a time. Add in the vanilla.
When everything is nice and combined add the flour.
Line an 8×8 baking pan with parchment or tin foil. Let the parchment hang over the side of the pan so that you can get the brownies out easily when they are cool. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Put in a preheated 325 degree oven and bake for 20 to 25 minutes.
Pull the brownies out of the pan using the parchment paper and cut into squares.
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PinIngredients
- 1 1/4 sticks butter
- 1 1/4 cups sugar
- 3/4 cups plus 2 Tablespoons cocoa powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup flour
Instructions
- On top of a double boiler, melt the butter, sugar, cocoa and salt. Melt, stirring occasionally. Let the mixture cool a bit.
- Add the eggs one at a time. Add in the vanilla.
- When everything is nice and combined add the flour.
- Line an 8×8 baking pan with parchment or tin foil. Let the parchment hang over the side of the pan so that you can get the brownies out easily when they are cool. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Put in a preheated 325 degree oven and bake for 20 to 25 minutes.
July 28th, 2010 at 11:07 am
almost every time i bake brownies, and had to scrape them out of the bottom of the pan, i recall the parchment paper trick. i’ve never used it! does it help prevent the corners from getting too dry? that’s always my problem :-/
July 28th, 2010 at 3:29 pm
I can tell these brownies are good and fudgy based on the small amount of flour in it. YUM!! I use foil to line my pans instead of parchment because foil is cheaper than parchment and works just as well haha.
July 28th, 2010 at 11:21 pm
I was about to go to bed and I just saw this and now I am craving these brownies. Not good! 🙂
July 31st, 2010 at 1:44 pm
I made this brownie recipe today.
My kids loved it, thanks!!!!
Nice fudgy brownie!
August 6th, 2010 at 1:14 pm
glad that you liked them.
June 1st, 2012 at 6:54 pm
yummmmy;) brownies are delicous i cant wait for these ones to make my day i love eating thre batter :3
June 2nd, 2012 at 2:47 pm
Me too Danielle!
August 8th, 2010 at 4:38 pm
these look ah-mazing! when you say 1 1/4 stick butter, do you mean one stick and then a 1/4 cup or 1 stick and then a 4th of a stick (2 TBSP)? Thank you!!
August 9th, 2010 at 10:50 am
10 Tablespoons. So 1 stick and then 1/4 of another stick.
January 12th, 2011 at 8:07 am
You have a lovely blog.
Swing by mine if you get a chance: http://www.form5artisan.blogspot.com
Cheers!
Christina.
January 17th, 2011 at 7:45 pm
thanks Christina.
March 15th, 2011 at 11:34 pm
hi just found your website by accident.want to try your brownie recipe but dont know how many grammes/ounces a stick of butter is.our butter is in 500g blocks.pleasehelp as my family love brownies. thanks ps i live in Durban ,South Africa
March 17th, 2011 at 8:25 pm
I already wrote you, but a stick of butter is 4 ounces.
April 27th, 2014 at 3:37 pm
Too bad I read through the comments AFTER trying out this recipe… a stick of butter in the UK is 250g, so needless to say these were, um, a “buttery” disaster. I didn’t question it because it comes up on a UK website (yummy.co.uk).
April 28th, 2014 at 10:06 pm
Sorry it didn’t work out for you. Here a stick of butter is 1/2 cup. And I don’t add my recipes to that site, they pull it on their own. i’m sorry.
April 22nd, 2011 at 10:37 am
Thank you! I’ve been looking for a simple, one-bowl brownie recipe that uses things I have on-hand (cocoa powder, not chocolate squares), and I think I’ve found it! I like my brownies a little more cakey and a little less fudgy, so I added a smidge more flour and it turned out great! These took no time at all to prepare and my chocolate craving was definitely satisfied! Thank you, thank you, thank you, for ending my brownie search! 😀
April 24th, 2011 at 11:32 pm
I am so glad. I really love this brownie recipe. It is easy and I always have everything on hand.
August 24th, 2011 at 1:41 pm
I almost couldn’t make these brownies. The batter alone was just so delicious!
August 24th, 2011 at 8:04 pm
I know. Yum.
December 30th, 2011 at 11:03 pm
apparently my chocolate seized?
wish I knew how difficult it was to melt before I started this!
I’m sure they are great though
December 31st, 2011 at 12:45 am
melting chocolate should not be difficult. Did you use a double boiler or microwave?
February 14th, 2012 at 5:20 am
Hi Bree!
I’ve been looking all around for basic brownie recipe and I found your site. Wow, your site is really great especially for a rookie like me.
Thanks!!!
February 18th, 2012 at 8:10 pm
Hello! I hope that it helps you out.
March 8th, 2012 at 5:31 pm
I have tried these 3 times now and they never turn out right. I’m going wrong somewhere in the beginning with the double broiler – my mixture never looks smooth like yours it always looks grainy, by the time I get to putting the flour in, the batter is so thick I can’t even pour it. Any tips?
March 10th, 2012 at 10:12 am
Oh no! My first thought is that you are seizing your chocolate. Make sure that the water is at a light simmer and that the bowl you are using is completely dry. The chocolate should melt very smooth, and glossy. Also maybe try using a different brand of chocolate. Hope that it turns out for you.
June 25th, 2012 at 8:56 pm
I followed each directions carefully, but my brownies failed 🙁 They turned out all gooey and the top was crispy… Did I do something wrong?
June 27th, 2012 at 3:56 pm
It is hard to say, but my guess would be oven temp.
October 3rd, 2012 at 9:24 am
Should I use the paper thing under the brownies?
October 8th, 2012 at 9:11 pm
Either parchment or foil.
November 8th, 2012 at 8:06 am
how many cups is 1 1/4 sticks of butter???please respond>>>
tnx.
November 18th, 2012 at 5:13 pm
3/4 cup.
November 20th, 2012 at 6:11 pm
I made this today and it is the best brownie ever! Yum! I’ve been getting lots of compliments on it. The directions were easy to follow and the pictures were beautiful.
November 20th, 2012 at 9:27 pm
Aren’t they good? Glad that you thought the pictures were helpful.
December 30th, 2012 at 12:07 am
Just made these, and they are delicious and so so decadent! However, I had to bake mine for almost 40 minutes before they were no longer liquidy in the middle. Still after baking that long (probably because no one in the house could let them sit!), they were literally melt-in-your-mouth tender. Not complaining about that though. =)
November 13th, 2013 at 1:40 am
hi bree. just wanted to ask. if i can use oven toaster for this recipe? thanks. by the way this recipe is awesome.:)
November 17th, 2013 at 11:38 am
s long as the pan fits, I don’t see why not.
January 11th, 2014 at 3:00 pm
WOW! Very good. However, I made a couple changes (one that I meant to make and the other, well let’s just say I didn’t read the instructions first – LOL!). The intentional change was the addition of some walnuts. The other difference….never been one for reading instructions…so I put everything except the eggs, nuts and flour into a bowl, then I got out the ol’ mixer and mixed and mixed and mixed (butter was a wee it stubborn since it was fairly firm when I started out)…but I kept on mixing, then added the eggs to muck it up a bit, mixed some more, then added the flour and nuts, mixed some more….and then I started thinking I must have missed some sort of liquid ’cause boy, this was a thick mixture…but double checked and all I found was that I should’ve done the double-boiler thingie….anyway, I took the extra thick mixture, put it into the microwave for 30 seconds , then into a pan and cooked it as I was supposed to (this is where I started to read the instructions!)….and as I said earlier, these are incredible brownies, so chewie and easy to make (no matter which method you choose – LOL!).
January 13th, 2014 at 10:20 pm
Haha! I have done that a time or two. 🙂
February 27th, 2014 at 6:57 pm
Question regarding the oven temp of 325. Is that because you used a glass baking dish? Should I go with 350 if I use a metal pan?
March 1st, 2014 at 12:13 am
It is because the recipe called for 325, and I followed Matt’s recipe.
May 11th, 2014 at 8:40 pm
I’m not sure what I did wrong
I made these for Mother’s Day and then the inside seemed to be really dough like
I baked it for 23 minutes
Do you think I should have baked it a bit longer?
And yes I followed all the steps precisely
May 12th, 2014 at 10:48 pm
Yes. If they aren’t done, you need to bake them longer. Oven temps vary so the time is only a suggestion. You need to bake for doneness, not time.
July 31st, 2014 at 12:15 pm
I made these in a jiffy and they lasted well and tasted great, tell me can I add some grated or pureed beetroot to this mixture?
August 2nd, 2014 at 4:26 pm
I baked these for my six year old daughter who demanded a chocolate brownie this very minute, so I was lucky to find this recipe and whipped them up in no time at all, she loved them and ate them for three days and they kept on tasting better each day, so I was wondering can I add beetroot to these to make them more healthy?
August 3rd, 2014 at 9:31 pm
You can add whatever you like, but I subscribe to the 80/20 rule. I eat really well 80% of the time so that the other 20% I can have a brownie.
August 4th, 2014 at 5:40 am
My question was, will it turn out okay if I did add beetroot but how much?
August 5th, 2014 at 12:57 pm
I really have no idea, I have never made them with beetroot. You are more than welcome to experiment with the recipe.
August 21st, 2014 at 11:28 am
Wow….. This is the best brownie recipe I’ve ever tried…. And I’ve tried quite a lot
August 22nd, 2014 at 11:53 pm
Wow! So glad that you like it so much.
September 18th, 2014 at 12:04 pm
500 grams (1/2 KG) equals 1.1 pounds. In the USA, most butter comes in 1 pound boxes (4 sticks) of 4 oz each. 500 grams equals 1.1 pounds. and 454.5 grams equals 1 pound.
One ounce is 1/16th of the 454.5 or 28.4 grams and you need 10 ounces of butter in this recipe or 284 grams of butter. Hope this helps you since I did the math for you. A cup of dry ingredients is 8 ounces by volume in this recipe.
I try to read thru others’ comments before I try the recipe. So I am about to try the recipe – it sounds good and I am not using parchment paper but am using a Corning bakeware pan and have never had a problem taking items out of those pans but I use a very thin flat blade “egg turner” and press against the pan very firmly. I also let them cool in the pan (so they continue to bake a little) but the pan is set on a wire rack where air can travel under the pan to help cool it.
October 24th, 2015 at 4:21 am
hi what is the life span of this brownies? and can i use margarine ? instead of butter? thanks
October 27th, 2015 at 7:48 pm
A few days wrapped well. I suppose so, but I’ve never baked with margarine.
November 1st, 2015 at 1:40 am
are u not supposed to add baking powder or baking soda to it???
★★★★★
November 2nd, 2015 at 1:20 pm
No.
April 30th, 2016 at 11:27 am
I tried this recipe. It turned superb. Thanks for sharing. ????
I love reading your blog.
May 1st, 2016 at 10:15 am
You’re very welcome!
August 18th, 2017 at 2:46 pm
my mix turned out to be too thick , what do you think was wrong with it?
August 31st, 2017 at 11:48 am
I really don’t know. Maybe a mismeasurement?