Best ever chocolate brownies recipe (2024)

FAQs

How to make better brownies? ›

When the back-of-box instructions call for water, try some instant espresso or strong-brewed coffee for roasty, toasty notes that pair impeccably with chocolate. Or use milk or half-and-half for even more richness. And for cakey instead of fudgy brownies, add an extra egg for more lift and spring.

One change is to use milk or heavy cream instead of water. This change will make brownies more moist and gooey since milk is more fatty and flavorful than water. A second change is to use butter instead of oil. For similar reasons to using milk, butter adds a rich and more decadent quality to the batter.

Milk. Most brownie mixes call for water. While water does the job, you can add some extra flavor and moisture by mixing some of that water with something richer, like milk. If you want to swap it out completely, be prepared for a more chewy and fudge-like brownie from the extra fat.

Using caster sugar in brownies also helps to get a super crinkly top. Caster sugar has a smaller grain size than granulated sugar, so it dissolves better in the egg mixture, to give that nice crinkly top. If you only have granulated sugar on hand it will still work fine particularly if you are in the US.

Adding one large egg plus an extra egg yolk gives brownies an ultra fudgy texture. Chocolate Chips – Even if your brownie mix contains chocolate, plan to add chocolate chips. The additional sugar from the chocolate chips creates a shiny, crackly top as the brownies bake.

If you opt to add more eggs, say double the amount, something interesting happens. Even though you are adding more moisture, the air bubbles that you catch in the extra eggs add volume, which decreases the density of your final product. This makes your brownies rise and gives them a much more cake-like texture.

In brownies, both butter and oil will offer a moist, tender texture, but only butter will give the dish the aeration needed for rising brownies well. If you use a cake brownie, butter is a better option because it helps rise the batter. For denser, fudge type brownies, oil is permissable.

Replacing Oil with Butter

It couldn't be easier to substitute butter for oil using a 1:1 ratio. This should work with olive, canola, vegetable, and coconut oils. Simply melt and cool the butter to room temperature, then continue with your recipe. (If the recipe calls for ½ cup oil, use ½ cup melted and cooled butter.)

the butter brownies actually had a fudgier texture. they were softer, and they really just melted in your mouth. they also had that shiny crust and just better flavor, whereas the oil brownies were actually chewier.

Use the right amount of fat: Brownies need a good amount of fat to keep them moist. Ensure that you're using the recommended amount of butter or oil in the recipe. You can also try using melted chocolate or adding a little sour cream to increase the moisture content.

Can I use milk instead of eggs in brownies? ›

You can use 4 tablespoons of milk, ¼ cup of mashed banana or ¼ cup of unsweetened apple sauce in place of each egg required in a box brownie mix.

If you make brownies or bake often, consider using or purchasing a metal pan to use in place of your Pyrex dish. Metal pans, specifically aluminum, absorb and transfer heat more consistently than glass, making them perfect for delicious, evenly-cooked, moist brownies every time.

More brown sugar leads to dense brownies with incredible depth of flavor, but the additional moisture can cause their upper crust to be more solid than delicate as a result. If this is how you love your brownies, great.

While brown sugar can certainly impart a subtle caramel and toffee-like flavor to your brownie batch, this ingredient also brings extra moisture to your recipe, due in part to the molasses used to create the product.

Alice Medrich, author of Seriously Bitter Sweet: The Ultimate Dessert Maker's Guide to Chocolate, writes that “refrigerating the brownie batter in the pan for several hours, or as long as two days before baking, wreaks enormous transformations: it improves the top gloss and crustiness, and it also blends the flavors so ...

Fudgy brownies have a higher fat-to-flour ratio than cakey ones. So add more fat—in this case, butter and chocolate. A cakey batch has more flour and relies on baking powder for leavening. The amount of sugar and eggs does not change whether you're going fudgy or cakey.