The Best Homemade Brownies
It took a few tries to get these Best Homemade Brownies to become the Best Homemade Brownies. They made me work for it, y’all! It took 5 tries. 5(!) to get this recipe right. But, I finally got it.
I have a secret though.
Anytime I don’t want to go all out for a dessert for some event, I make brownies. And every time, people love them & rave about them.
But.
And this is my secret…
They’re box-mix.
Duncan Hines makes a really good brownie. You’ll find no complaints from me if you serve me one of those.
So to everyone reading this that loved my brownies, they were box-mix.
I feel better now having that out in the open.
That being said, I felt like it was time for me to find & make the best homemade brownie. I’ve tried a couple of from-scratch brownies recipes before but none of them were just right. None of them could be called, in my opinion, the Best Homemade Brownie.
So I set out to make that brownie.
Five tries later & I found it.
Let me tell you about them:
They’re fudgy but not too fudgy. Cakey but not too cakey. They’re juuussst right!
You can make these the old-fashioned way–by hand. I use my stand mixer for just about everything I make so being able to make something old-school is quite nice.
You’ll need 3 bowls: one large, one medium, one small.
I made a 9×13 pan because I wanted them nice & thick. I found that the 9×9 pan of brownies were a little too thin for me. You can super easily cut the recipe in half for a 9×9 pan if you don’t want as many brownies or don’t really care about how tall your brownies are.
The 9×13 pan makes about 15 brownies. The 9×9 pan makes 9 brownies.
Want to know how to make them? Let’s go!
If you watch Worst Cooks in America, then you’ve heard of mise en place which basically means that you get everything ready to go, all of your ingredients prepped before you start making your dish. I highly highly highly recommend this. Cooking & baking goes so much quicker & smoother when you have everything ready to go.
First, gather all of the ingredients. You’re gonna need all of the basics: sugar (granulated & light brown), flour, oil, butter, eggs, baking soda, & salt. You’re also gonna need cocoa powder (I use Nestle), a bar of baking chocolate (I use Ghiradelli or Baker’s semi-sweet), and chocolate chips. Grab the bowls you need while you’re at it: one large, medium, and small.
Time to Measure:
Now it’s time to start measuring & putting the ingredients in the right bowls. First, melt the butter in the microwave in 20 second intervals. The goal is to not scramble the eggs so you want to give the butter a chance to cool for a couple of minutes before mixing it in with the other ingredients.
The small bowl is for the baking chocolate bar. Break it up into pieces & melt it in the microwave in 20 second intervals, stirring after each time. Once it’s all melted, set it aside. You want it to cool a smidge before you mix it in with the wet ingredients because you don’t want to scramble the eggs.
The medium bowl: all the dry ingredients but not the sugars. Whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.
The large bowl: both the white granulated sugar & the light brown sugar goes in along with the melted butter. Whisk all of this together. Then add the eggs one by one. I recommend cracking all of the eggs in a separate bowl & whisking them together and pouring the eggs into the wet ingredients in 4 intervals (one interval per egg). I think it helps the eggs combine with the wet ingredients easier but it isn’t necessary if you don’t want to dirty another bowl.
Make sure that each egg is mixed with the wet ingredients before adding the next one. Once all of the eggs are in there, add the oil (I used vegetable but canola oil will work) and the vanilla extract. Whisk it all together. Now add in the melted chocolate. Give it a whisk so it all comes together.
Mix It Up! This part is SUPER IMPORTANT!
Now it’s time to combine the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients. In 3 intervals, add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients with a rubber spatula. Yep, a rubber spatula.
Drop the whisk. Grab a spatula. Trust me on this.
Make sure each interval of dry ingredients is just mixed in. You do NOT want to over-mix the batter. Over-mixing does not lead to the Best Homemade Brownies, trust me. So just stir in the dry ingredients until combined. The batter is going to be quite thick so make sure that you’ve got all of the dry ingredients mixed in that usually settle on the bottom.
Once you’ve got all the dry ingredients mixed in, add the chocolate chips. Again, stir until they’re just combined. You don’t want to over-mix the batter.
Pour it into your pan that is lined with parchment paper. Spread it out & put it in the oven for about 50 minutes (depends on your oven. Mine took 50 minutes but start checking around 47 minutes.). They’re done once a toothpick comes out mostly clean with a few moist crumbs.
They will dip in the center slightly & that’s okay.
Voila! Time to enjoy the Best Homemade Brownies!
(You can find the full recipe below.)
Love,
Best Homemade Brownies
Ingredients
- 1 cup (2 sticks) butter
- 1 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup light brown sugar, packed
- 4 large eggs, room temperature
- 2 tbsp vegetable (or canola) oil
- 4 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 bar (4 oz) baking chocolate, melted (Ghiradelli or Baker's)
- 1 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup cocoa powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 cup chocolate chips (I use semi-sweet).
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9×13 pan with parchment paper. Set aside.
- Melt the butter in the microwave in 20 second intervals. Once melted, set aside.
- In a small bowl, melt the chocolate in the microwave in 20 second intervals, stirring after each interval. Once melted, set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the granulated sugar, the light brown sugar, and the melted butter. One at a time add in each egg, whisking the egg in until just combined. (I recommend whisking the eggs in a separate bowl & pouring those eggs into the wet ingredients in 4 intervals (1 per egg). This is up to you 🙂 )
- Add the oil and the vanilla extract & whisk together.
- Pour the melted chocolate into the wet ingredients & stir until combined.
- In 3 intervals, add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients using a RUBBER SPATULA (this is imperative!). Only mix until all of the flour is incorporated being careful to not overmix. The batter will be thick so make sure you get all of the flour that can settle at the bottom of the bowl.
- Finally, add in the chocolate chips. Again, stirring until just combined.
- Spread the batter into the prepared parchment-lined pan. Bake in the oven for about 50 minutes (time depends on your oven so start checking around 47-48 minutes). They're done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out almost clean with just a few moist crumbs.
- Let it cool completely on the counter then cut & serve. Enjoy!
Notes
A few more recipes can be found here, here, here and here. Enjoy!
