The Baked Brownie
The Baked Brownie! Totally famous and for good reason – they are rich, dense, fudge-like brownies; you’ll never need another brownie recipe!
The famed Baked brownie. Oprah says it’s one of her favorite things. America’s Test Kitchen claims it’s their favorite brownie.
I don’t put much stock in Oprah, but America’s Test Kitchen is pretty much like the bible to me when it comes to all things kitchen. I check their reviews before any other recipes, and before I buy any kitchen equipment or new ingredients. So, if it’s their favorite brownie, I need to take a serious look.
If you haven’t treated yourself to the beauty that is the Baked cookbook, run, don’t walk, to Amazon and order it immediately. The Baked series is one of my most coveted groups of cookbooks – they have incredibly wonderful recipes, many that have a cozy, homey feel as well as some that have unique tweaks. I could go on about all of the amazing recipes in this book, but for now, let’s focus on these brownies. Because they deserve it. They are one of my favorite things. And I usually need to hide them from myself.
There is a great explanation in the book about how the Baked brownie recipe came to be, which is a great read. The key is that they don’t want it to be cakey, so they use no leavening agents (no baking powder or baking soda). With 11 ounces of chocolate, additional cocoa powder, lots of butter and sugar, and 5 eggs, you don’t need me to tell you that these babies are R-I-C-H.
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This is quite possibly the most perfect brownie. Now, if you like cakey brownies you won’t think so. But, if you like honest-to-goodness, rich and dense brownies, you will have found your Eden when you bite into these.
They have a good bit of height given that they don’t have any leavening agents, so they aren’t thin, gooey and smooshed like some brownies (this is a good thing). They have substance and heft when you bite into them, and they boast the ever-elusive and much sought after thin, crackly brownie crust that seems to be the calling card of amazing brownies.
Now, get thee into the kitchen and make these! Then pour yourself a tall glass of cold milk and enjoy bite after decadent bite.
Three years ago: Toasted Almond Fudge Ripple Ice Cream
Four years ago: Coconut Cream Pie
The Baked Brownie
Ingredients
- 1¼ cups (156.25 g) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder, natural or Dutch-process will work
- 11 ounces (311.85 g) dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
- 1 cup (227 g) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces
- 1 teaspoon instant espresso powder, optional
- 1½ cups (300 g) granulated sugar
- ½ cup (110 g) packed light brown sugar
- 5 eggs, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter the sides and bottom of a 9x13-inch glass or light-colored baking pan. Line the pan with parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, salt, and cocoa powder together.
- Put the chocolate, butter and instant espresso powder in a large heat-proof bowl and set it over a saucepan of simmering water, stirring occasionally, until the chocolate and butter are completely melted and smooth. Turn off the heat, but keep the bowl over the water and add the sugars. Whisk until completely combined, then remove the bowl from the pan. The mixture should be room temperature.
- Add 3 eggs to the chocolate mixture and whisk until combined. Add the remaining eggs and whisk until combined. Add the vanilla and stir until combined. Do not overbeat the batter at this stage or your brownies will be cakey.
- Sprinkle the flour mixture over the chocolate mixture. Using a rubber spatula (not a whisk), fold the flour mixture into the chocolate until just a bit of the flour mixture is visible.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake, rotating the pan halfway through baking, until a toothpick inserted into the center of the brownies comes out with a few moist crumbs sticking to it, about 30 minutes. Let the brownies cool completely in the pan, then lift them out of the pan using the parchment paper. Cut into squares and serve. Store at room temperature in an airtight container or wrap with plastic wrap for up to 3 days.
Notes
Did you make this recipe?
Leave a review below, then snap a picture and tag @thebrowneyedbaker on Instagram so I can see it!
This recipe was originally published on October 8, 2010.
Hi Michelle !! thanks for the awesome recipe !
just a quick question. when i added the sugar to the chocolate and butter mixture it only melted slightly no matter how much i stirred it. i ended up with a big grainy lump.
am i doing something wrong?
Hmm, the sugar won’t melt completely (it will still appear slightly grainy), but should not be a lump. If the mixture turned into one hard mass, it sounds as though your chocolate seized up.
you had me at “I don’t put much faith in Oprah” ;)
:)
I made these tonight and, as I hoped they would, they shattered my belief that brownies from scratch couldn’t be better than boxed mix. These are incredible!!! I didn’t have a 9×13 pan so I poured half the batter into an 8×8 glass pan and half into an 8×8 spring form cake pan and 30 minutes was still the right amount of time.
This is the only brownie batter I will use from now on! I made these this weekend for Lundi Gras at a friend’s house. While they were cooling, I had to leave to run an errand and when I came back they were gone (minus one they left for me)! I got so much praise for the brownies that my friend and her family members were offering me money to make another batch! Love this recipe. They were fudgey and cakey at the same time. Also instead of using espresso powder I used instant coffee and instead of light brown sugar, I used dark brown sugar but only a 1/3 cup.
I found this post (and your blog) when googling brownie recipes. I made these and they are SO DELICIOUS. So thank you so much for the recipe!
Hi Michelle,
How dark is the dark chocolate (what percentage cocoa) you use? I made these yesterday using Cadbury Dark Baking Chocolate which is 45% cocoa solids and the brownies turned out great! But I’m thinking of making another batch using Lindt Cooking Chocolate Dessert which is 70% Cocoa. I am the hoping the change in better quality chocolate would make even better brownies haha. Will using darker chocolate enhance the flavor or just make it taste bitter?
Thanks.
Hi Diana, I typically use 60% cocoa for these brownies. I’ve mixed in some 70% with it if I have some extra to use up. I don’t think it tastes bitter all – just a really rich, pure chocolate flavor. Enjoy! :)
Just made these…well, ate them, lol. I could not wait for them to fully cool! They are fabulous for sure. Thank you for sharing!
I’ll be making these tonight. The pics you posted are extremely compelling…I feel like you could have just posted the pics without the explanation and people would be making this recipe just as much…because I want to eat the pictures lol!
Congrats! This recipe is so loved in my family that I am baking the 2nd batch in one week! I used to make dreadful brownies – too dry, too cake-like. This recipe is perfect.
I added some cinnamon chocolate drops – yummy!
I’m a chocoholic and can’t wait to make these! Recipe calls for dark chocolate- do you find semi-sweet, bittersweet, or a combination of the two to work best? Thanks!
Ammmazing brownies! Definitely my go-to recipe from now on. Super rich moist…perfection! Thanks so much!
GUYS!! I just made these and they are CRAZZZY!!!
I made these with just a few differences though:
-Instead of butter I used coconut oil
-I didn’t have dark unsweetened cocoa powder so I just used Kroger cocoa powder
-I didn’t have dark chocolate so I used Ghirardelli 60% cacao bittersweet chocolate chips
– I don’t drink coffee, but I have Pero instant coffee substitute that I used instead
The brownies came out way lighter than the ones in the picture, but they are decadent and SOOOO MOIST!! Can’t wait to surprise my husband when he gets home :) Thanks for the recipe!
Michelle, thanks a million for your help!
When baking with a Pyrex pan should the temperature be reduced from 350* to 325* ?
Do you bake on top of a cookie sheet or pizza stone?
John
Hi John, I never reduce the temperature unless I’m using a dark, non-stick pan. So if you’re using glass Pyrex I would leave the temperature at 350. I place pans directly on the oven rack, unless otherwise stated in a recipe.
I. love. these. brownies. Amazing. I have made them a few times since my mom first made them for me last summer. This is my go-to brownie recipe, for sure.
These look absolutely delicious. I am a chocoholic, and am always looking for the richest, darkest, chocolate deserts. I am definitely going to make these soon!
Michelle, do you think these would hold up well if I shipped them to a friend? I would probably do next day air, but how long do they seem to retain their moisture? (If they even last long enough without being eaten first!) And do they fall apart easily, or do they seem to hold their shape well?
Thanks for sharing the recipe!
I think they’d do fine being mailed. If it were me sending them, I’d cut and freeze them, and package them up frozen. They’ll stay fresh longer that way! They hold their shape well, best to cut when cooled.
Hi Jared, I think they would be fine for shipping. I would cut them and wrap each one individually, which will keep them the freshest and least likely to break apart during shipping. They stay fresh for 3-5 days if wrapped and stored correctly. Enjoy!
So, I made these and they turned out good. I had a few problems with mixing the sugar and butter because I had too much sugar and too little lqiuid and I let them bake a bit longer than they should have but they were good! The real texture and flavour came through after a couple of days and my friends really liked them.
This recipe is good!
Ohhhh, and mine looks exactly as yours
Thank you, thank you, thank you
Just baked it, and turned out soooooooooo YUMMMMMMY, i think this is the best brownie I’ve ever tasted, really loved it
So proud of my self
Thank you very much
I have a fear of over-beating eggs into batter.
Can eggs be beat first and later be added to batter?
Hi John, I would not beat the eggs ahead of time. In this recipe you are merely whisking; just do it slowly and gently – enough to incorporate the eggs and you’ll be fine.
Did not come out close to the picture shown, it was one of the words recipes I have ever followed… A box of Duncan Hines put this recipe to shame… Sorry but true..
If you are a bad baker…what can u expect? recipes are just numbers and ingredientes , sometimes you need a little bit more. Did you weight your ingredients correctly? did you make everything as written? are you 100% sure? before complaining people should try to understand first where the mistake was..In this case the problem is you not the recipe since lots and lots have make this brownies with beautiful results.
I was wondering if anyone baked this recipe using a 9×9 pan? I like thicker brownies. How would the baking time be affected? Would 35-40 minutes be appropriate? Thanks
I just made these today, and they are great! My new girlfriend’s best friend and son want some brownies, so I decided to do a test run before Christmas. I followed the recipe, except that I did not have espresso powder and I added Baileys Caramel liqueur-about 3/4 cup. My father came home just after I cut them. He’s a brownie freak, and after he tasted one, he asked me whether it was a mix or from scratch. I told him I made them from scratch, and he said they are very good. They are very moist, just dense enough, and chewy. I am not a fan of cakey brownies. Up to now, our favorite brownies were some I buy in Puerto Rico from Carla’s Sweets, a baker down there. However, these are now my favorite. So, my future batches will be great! I used eight ounces of Callebaut chocolate, and then I added a couple cups of Ghiradelli semi-sweet chocolate chips. So, I am now going to share them with friends and co-workers and see what they think.
These are probably the best brownies I have ever made/eaten. I used a packet of instant hazelnut coffee (a little over 1t) and I did not have dark chocolate on hand so I used 8oz unsweetened and 3oz semi sweet. I used Hershey’s special dark for the cocoa powder. I did not line the pan with parchment since we were traveling so I left them in the pan and covered it but they were so moist they almost suctioned to the pan so I would probably line it next time.
Hi I am in the process of making these brownies and find that when I melted the butter chocolate and added brown sugar whilst whisking i found that the mixture is more gooey like cake in too much sauce… is this normal??? please let me know else i would have to stop it here… and repeat
I forgot to add vanilla. Are they ruined
Definitely not ruined, but might just be a tad bit lacking in flavor, which the vanilla helps to bring out.
Made these brownies for the office.. went down a treat! added some fudge chips, milk chocolate bits and some wafered almond to top them off… they were fantastic!!
Hey Michelle,
I have a question..can we add walnuts to these brownies..I’m just on my way to making these oh-so-wonderful looking brownies!
I think you could add walnuts; let me know how they turn out!
Ok so I guess I must have done something wrong! You have to help me out here :(
After melting the butter and chocolate step I added the sugars and for some odd reason they wouldn’t incorporate at all. After a frustrating hour of considering whether I should continue or just forget about the whole thing..I thought I should go on and see what happens. Everything was perfect; the texture, the taste. the crackling light brown surface BUT it was grainy since the sugar didn’t dissolve at all. Could there have been an issue with my sugar? I was thinking of maybe grinding the sugar next time to get a powder version so it can dissolve properly. These brownies were gone in the next 12 hours! I can only imagine how great they would actually be if it wasn’t for the sugar glitch! Any suggestions for next time??
It sounds like your mixture wasn’t warm enough. The sugar should melt and incorporate completely if the mixture is warm enough. Were you using regular white sugar and brown sugar? The only thing I can think of is that if you used a substitute for the white sugar or raw sugar for the brown, it might not dissolve properly.
Just made these brownies today they looked so good in the picture but they didn’t come out the same more cake like I really was hoping for a a chewy brownie : (
In my opinion, 30 min is too long. I put these in and went to check up on them 25 min later and they were already overdone. And you typically want to under bake brownies not over bake them. Keep an eye on these. Next time I might only leave them in for 20 min. The flavour is good though.
These brownies ate delish !! I baked them in a 8×8 pan so they were thicker, so dense and fudgy Roth that awesome sought after crackly crust, hubby loved these as well. Will be making 2 more of your top 10 brownies this week! Your blog is the best luv your recipes!! Keep em coming!