Let’s break down my indulgently rich brownie recipe real quick. A brownie’s main ingredients are chocolate, flour, sugar, and eggs. Varying amounts of these ingredients will affect the texture of the finished product.
The importance of chocolate. Brownies may be made with cocoa powder or solid chocolate. If using all cocoa powder, you typically will need more fat in the batter because cocoa powder does not contain the cocoa butter that solid chocolate does. Today, my brownie recipe uses mostly solid chocolate with a bit of cocoa powder. Double the chocolate goodness! I prefer these brownies with semi-sweet chocolate, though milk chocolate would be just fine for a sweeter tasting brownie. I don’t suggest using unsweetened or bittersweet chocolate unless you love deep, dark chocolate. My taste testers found them to be too bitter using either of those chocolate options.
You’re going to melt a precise 8 ounces of chocolate with the butter – this will help prevent the chocolate from seizing. You may either do this on the stove or in the microwave. I can’t stress the importance of accurately measuring the 8 ounces. Here is the food scale I own and highly suggest stocking your kitchen with one. The most important tool I own!
Sorry it has chocolate crumbs all over it…
Now, the flour. Like I mentioned above, I prefer my brownies chewy and fudgy! The fudginess in my brownie recipe relates to the small amount of flour. More flour = a more cake-like brownie. Cakey brownies are just not my thing; I’d rather have giant piece of chocolate cake!
Let’s talk sugar. My brownie recipe uses 3/4 cup of granulated sugar, which sweetens up the semi-sweet chocolate and unsweetened cocoa powder used. I also add 1/4 cup of brown sugar, which enhances the moist, fudgy texture. The sugars are whisked with the melted butter/chocolate mixture until completely smooth and uniform in texture.
There is very little wiggle room with the sugar. As long as you use 1 total cup of real sugar (no sugar substitutes here, please) – then your brownies will turn out wonderfully. 1 full cup of granulated sugar can be used without the addition of brown sugar. That version is just as fantastic – and easier since you only need 1 type of sugar! In fact, that’s how I usually make my brownies. But the little addition of brown sugar is welcomed these days.
Eggs do about 1 million functions in baking. From binding, to adding richness, to tenderizing, to providing structure and lift. My homemade brownie recipes uses 3 eggs, which give the brownies a tight crumb and melt-in-your-mouth tender, fudgy texture.
Because I’m completely out of my chocolate-obsessed mind, I like to add chocolate chips or chunks to the brownie batter. There is always room for more chocolate, right? The chocolate pieces inside give the brownies a little texture and will melt all over your fingers when they’re warm. Just wait until you try these homemade brownies with a little melty vanilla ice cream on the side. Perfection.
Oh, and one final touch? You can even add milk chocolate frosting because… why not?