
The Ultimate Brownie Guide
If you’re a frequent Handle the Heat reader you probably remember my Ultimate Guide to Chocolate Chip Cookie post, and part 2, and part 3. Those posts were so fun and popular that I’ve created even more Ultimate Guide posts that deconstruct the ingredients and techniques from your favorite recipes and foods so we can all learn why and how things happen in the kitchen.
Brownies come in many forms but they deservedly require their own category in the world of desserts because they aren’t quite cakes, cookies, or fudge. Yet, brownies are often described as being cakey, chewy, or fudgy. What makes for the perfect brownie is a matter of personal preference and with the thousands of brownie recipes that exist, it can be hard to find your version of the perfect brownie.
With the earliest published brownie recipes spanning back to the early 1900s, it’s no surprise that there are countless variations to this delightful treat. Whether they are made from a box or from scratch, whether they have nuts, chocolate chips, or frosting, or whether they are cakey, chewy, or fudgy, the recipe options are endless.
That is why I went on a quest to discover which brownie ingredients and techniques produce which results. In a crazy whirlwind of brownie baking, I made seven batches of brownies in a scientifically-inspired kitchen experiment. I used an adapted version of the well-known Baker’s One Bowl Brownie recipe as my control and tested the effects of cake flour, cocoa powder, brown sugar, oil and cocoa powder, an extra egg yolk, and whipped eggs and sugar. I used the same ingredients, utensils, and bakeware, when applicable, and maintained a 350°F oven and a 20 minute baking time for each batch to ensure accurate testing. Take a look at the results, I hope they help you discover the tricks to making your version of the perfect brownie!
Control Recipe
Ingredients:
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate
6 tablespoons (3 ounces) unsalted butter
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/2 cup all-purpose flour (2.25 ounces or 63 grams)
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line an 8×8-inch pan with foil, leaving an overhang on all 4 sides. Spray with nonstick cooking spray.
In a large microwave-safe bowl, microwave the chocolate and butter on high in 30 second bursts, stirring between each burst, until the mixture is melted. Let cool slightly. Stir in the sugar. Mix in the eggs and vanilla. Stir in the salt and flour until combined. Pour into the prepared pan.
Bake for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with moist crumbs attached. Cool completely before cutting into squares.
Cake Flour:
For this test I substituted the 1/2 cup (2.25 ounces) of all-purpose flour called for in the recipe with 1/2 cup of sifted Swans Down brand cake flour, which weighs 1.75 ounces after sifting. Everything else in the recipe was left as is. The brownies were lighter and softer, as you might expect. They were also less rich and dense.
If you’re wondering what cake flour is, it is a very fine-textured flour with a low protein content, usually about 8 percent. All-purpose flour has a protein content of around 10-12 percent, depending on the brand. The lower protein content in cake flour usually gives baked goods very tender and fine textured results, which is why it’s perfect in cake recipes. In brownies, however, I found that using cake flour produced results that were too soft and cake-y and not nearly rich or fudgy enough. If you prefer a more tender and cake-y brownie, using cake flour is definitely the way to go.
Cocoa powder:
There are two main families of brownie recipes; those that call for melted chocolate and those that call for cocoa powder. Sometimes a recipe will call for both, but the Baker’s One Bowl Brownie recipe calls for melted chocolate. I wanted to see how using only cocoa powder would affect the brownies. I removed the melted chocolate in the recipe and replaced it with 3/4 cup of natural unsweetened cocoa powder, keeping everything else the same. The resulting brownies were nice and chewy with that distinct cocoa flavor, but they were also much more dry and crumbly. The melted chocolate certainly provides moisture and without it, the brownies were quenched. My go-to cocoa brownie recipe uses a whopping ten tablespoons of butter, as opposed to the control recipe’s six tablespoons. Cocoa brownies are quick, easy, and chewy, but they require more butter to maintain a moist, fudgy bite.
Brown Sugar:
Most brownie recipes call for only granulated sugar, although some call for a ratio of both granulated and brown sugars. I love brown sugar and feel that it adds a depth of sweet flavor and moisture to baked goods so I thought it would be perfect to test how brown sugar affects brownies. I replaced the 1 cup of granulated sugar with 1 cup of packed light brown sugar and the resulting brownies were soft, rich, and ultra moist. They were also slightly thicker and darker in color than the control recipe. The one thing they were lacking as compared to the control brownies (and later the whipped egg and sugar brownies) was that crinkly, tissue-thin crust that is so characteristic of brownies. The brown sugar adds too much moisture to allow the tops the dry out enough to produce that crust.
Oil and Cocoa:
The idea behind this particular brownie test was to recreate the elements behind boxed mix brownies. Many of us grew up eating brownies made from a box and there’s definitely something appealing about their chewy texture and cocoa flavor. In an attempt to replicate those boxed brownie characteristics, I replaced the 6 tablespoons of butter with a 1/3 cup of vegetable oil and replaced the 2 ounces of unsweetened chocolate with 3/4 cup natural unsweetened cocoa powder. The results were very similar to box mix brownies in flavor, texture, and appearance. They were soft yet chewy with a light cocoa flavor that lacked the chocolate intensity of a more rich or fudgy brownie. They were also lacking moisture and were almost crumbly. My assessment of making brownies using both cocoa and oil is that they definitely require more moisture either in the form of fat, such as adding a touch more oil or an extra egg yolk, or in the form of water.
Egg Yolk:
In the notes for the Baker’s One Bowl Brownie recipe it directs bakers to use an additional egg to make for more fudgy brownies. Knowing that fatty egg yolks add richness while the lean egg whites tend to produce a more cake-like texture in baking, I wanted to see just how fudgy an extra egg yolk would make these brownies. In addition to the two large eggs called for in the recipe, I added an additional egg yolk, keeping everything else the same. The egg yolk brownies were supremely dense, moist, dark, and ultra chewy. Like the brown sugar brownies, these egg yolk brownies had way too much moisture to produce that crinkly, tissue-thin crust. They were also on the thin side. If you want to add richness to your brownies and make them more fudgy and chewy, adding an extra egg yolk is definitely the way to go.
Whipped Eggs and Sugar:
Finally, for my last round of brownie testing, I decided to experiment with the more unique technique of beating the eggs and sugar for 3 to 5 minutes with an electric mixer until they were pale, thick, and fluffy. After insuring the sugar was well dissolved into the eggs, I added the cooled melted butter and chocolate mixture and vanilla then proceeded with folding in the salt and flour. The results were interesting. These brownies were rich, fudgy, and chewy, but had a lightness about them that none of the other brownies had. Plus they had a beautiful crinkly tissue-thin crust on the top that I loved. I must admit that while I enjoyed certain characteristics of all the other brownies in this kitchen experiment, these whipped egg and sugar brownies were my favorite.
Final Comparison:
The article The Ultimate Brownie Guide was originally posted at Relish.com
Since we’re on the subject of brownies I figured I’d whet your brownie appetite by rounding up some of my favorite brownie recipes that I’ve posted over the years. Which is your favorite?
Thick and Fudgy Toffee Brownies
What’s your ultimate ideal brownie? Do you like them chewy, fudgy, cakey, or something else?
Share on Pinterest:

About Tessa...
I share trusted baking recipes your friends will LOVE alongside insights into the science of sweets. I'm a professionally trained chef, cookbook author, and cookie queen. I love to write about all things sweet, carb-y, and homemade. I live in Phoenix, Arizona (hence the blog name!)
© Handle the Heat - handletheheat.com
Join the Handle the Heat Community

Instead of digging through cookbooks and magazines and searching the internet for amazing recipes, subscribe to Handle the Heat to receive new recipe posts delivered straight to your email inbox. You’ll get all the latest recipes, videos, kitchen tips and tricks AND my *free* Cookie Customization Guide (because I am the Cookie Queen)!
Fudgy brownies are so my thing!! LOVING these guides, they are awesome!
I love your guides! They’re fun and informative 😀 I’ll eat any kind of brownie, but fudgy ones are my favorite!
Thanks a lot, I’m glad you like them!
Love this post! You know how much I love brownies!!
The thick and fudgy toffee brownies look amazing! but so do all of them. I don’t know what one to make first.
Two Words – Face. Plant.
My favourite ones are not actually on your list, they were the chocolate cinnamon ones you made (I think they were called Mexican brownies). They are actually amazing and I wish I had a big plate of them right now! They are just soooooo good!
G’day Tessa! What a GREAT experiment and LOVE your photos, true!
As a very visual food lover, your post today has me craving brownies too!
I repost on my FB acct..
Cheers! Joanne
When I click over to the relish.com page, it only loads for a few seconds before reverting to the bing.com home page. Do you know why this is happening? I really want to read your post! 🙁
Hi Erika! I reported this problem to Relish and they’re working to fix it. In the meantime, you can clear your browser’s cache and cookies or simply click on this link: http://relish.com/?setvalid=1 to avoid being rerouted to Bing. Thanks for bringing this to my attention!
The link isn’t working
i love slutty brownies but they are even better if you replace the oreo with a peanut butter cup
How did you decide to substitute 3/4 cup cocoa for 2 oz. unsw chocolate? According to what I’ve read, the cocoa adds a starch component that must be corrected for when adding it to the dry ingredients of a recipe (as well as, needing to supplement the total fat when making the cocoa-for-chocolate substitution). I just wondered–weight? subjective experience of the cocoa’s cacao-intensity??
Hi Paula! Yes, I used 3/4 cup cocoa because it weighs about 2 ounces (can vary depending on the brand/method of measuring). I wasn’t surprised that these brownies came out dry, most cocoa powder based brownies (this one is a fave: https://www.handletheheat.com/2010/12/cocoa-brownies.html) have lots of butter and little flour. For these experiments I wanted to alter the smallest amount of ingredients/methods possible in each batch to see exactly how the variable in question affects the final product. If I change too many things it skews the results. I hope that helps!
Hi Tessa,
Great brownies! i’ve tried the original one and it taste fantastic!! Thank you so much for sharing the tips and recipes! I wanted to try the thick and fudgy toffee brownies but I cant seem to find Toffee around the place where I live, I live in Jakarta btw. Could we make the toffee instead? Could you please also share the ingredients? Thanks a lot Tessa 🙂
Hi! Yes, you can totally make the toffee. Unfortunately I don’t have a recipe on my site but I know of a REALLY fantastic toffee recipe from here: http://www.lafujimama.com/2008/11/fuji-nanas-deadly-chocolate-almond/
Wow, I can’t believe it! In 2004, I learned what brownies are. Since then, I tried getting them right. 10 years later, and I finally did it! This guide is perfect, thank you! 😀
This compilation looks awesome. Have you ever tried making Brownie Brittle? They are these crunchy brownie-like cookies…oh so good. Any ideas?
I just got a bag at a blogging retreat a week ago! My first time experiencing it. I’ll have to experiment with making a homemade recipe for the stuff.
Thanks for this great guide. My favorite brownie is the fudgy, I can say I love all of them. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for sharing this guide. The fudgy ones are my favorite.
The Whipped Eggs and Sugar one looks/sounds like my perfect preference of brownies! I love them a little chewy, fudgy and the crinkly sugar crust. I love these variations/experiments of baked goods you do (such as the chocolate chip cookie one)–saves me on a lot of batches of trying to determine the recipe for me. Thank you for sharing!
I no longer use vegetable oil in my baking-it’s either butter or coconut oil.
Have you tried this recipe substituting the fat with either of these?
The control recipe here is made with butter and I have another brownie recipe which uses coconut oil here: https://www.handletheheat.com/coconut-oil-brownies/
If I will add some Chocolate chips of any flavor or some different kinds of nuts it still affect th
If I will add some Chocolate chips of any flavor or some different kinds of nuts will it still affect the texture of brownies? Thanks! 🙂
Nuts will definitely affect the texture! You should be able to add any kind of mix-ins you’d like as long as they’re about the size of chocolate chips.
This is helpful, thank you! I like my brownies thick with a crinkly top, fudgy, and not dense. The oil and cocoa ones look absolutely delicious! I need to experiment with a gluten free, vegan version of those!!
I am a big proponent of the cocoa/oil brownies. Everything truly goes into one bowl quick and easy – no melitng required. Not that I am an expert or anything, but it seems your substitution of cocoa for chocolate was way off. You’d need much less cocoa and a bit more fat to achieve deliciously moist cocoa/oil brownies. As the experts say and I paraphrase, an equal amount of cocoa is more intensely “cocoa-flavored” than the same amount of unsweetened chocolate, BUT lacking in fat. In your control recipe, I would have used 1/3 cup cocoa and 1/2 cup oil. Thanks for your super guide!
Hey how many eggs white if use the whipping egg white method? And what about the eggs yolk?
This is a follow-up to Paula’s and Yael’s question/comments. I, too, wondered how you came up with 3/4 cup of cocoa to replace the 2 oz of baking chocolate. I’m not at all surprised that the brownies you substituted cocoa in were dry and crumbly. Baking chocolate is just that-chocolate. What does chocolate have in it? Cocoa butter! I have a recipe that my Mom gave me that calls for baking chocolate. In her notes she says “if substituting cocoa powder use 3 level tablespoons cocoa + 2 tablespoons of butter per square”. The cocoa butter must be replaced with something or you will get nowhere near the same results. I hope you’ll retry the cocoa ones with the proper ingredients to see how they really come out. 🙂 I love your guide though.
Hi Tessa! First I’d like to thank you for taking the time to create this guide; it’s been really useful when I want to experiment with brownies (your guide on cookies is great too!).
But I have a complaint/question. I followed the control recipe and used the whipped eggs/sugar change. While preparing the batter, I noticed that the recipe called for 2 oz. of chocolate which I converted to about 1/4 cup of chocolate. I thought the amount to be very small, but I ignored it and continued the recipe. It turned out exactly as you described it to be, except for the color of the brownies came out pale brown and didn’t taste like chocolate or brownies at all. I was sure that the problem was too little chocolate, so I went back and looked over the entire guide to make sure that it wasn’t a typo. I noticed that on the cocoa powder recipe you said that you “removed the 4 ounces of melted chocolate in the recipe and replaced it with 3/4 cup of natural unsweetened cocoa powder”, contradicting the original recipe and then followed the original for the cocoa and oil recipe, stating that you “replaced the 2 ounces of unsweetened chocolate with 3/4 cup natural unsweetened cocoa powder”.
I hope that you can fix this soon, please!
Hi Angela! Thanks for pointing that out! It was a typo. If you look at the original Baker’s One Bowl Brownie recipe for an 8×8-inch pan size, it calls for 2 ounces of chocolate. That is the correct amount for that size pan. I hope that clears things up! By the way, you may want to try out my Ultimate Brownie recipe which utilizes the whipped eggs/sugar technique and makes for very chocolaty brownies: https://www.handletheheat.com/ultimate-brownies
hi! i’ve just made the control recipe with whipped eggs and sugar and the brownies look pale, it will modify the brownie if i add more chocolate?
Just a new to brownie baker so Don’t use a brooownie mix that has past expiration date, tastes stale. Use extra egg if you like cakey texture, I am not a fudgy guy. Use a silicone baking pan comes out easier, edges not crunchy. Good luck you all and keep on experimenting until you hit it!
Hi Tessa! May I know for the recipe you gave, in a 8″ x 8″ pan, how high/thick are the resultant brownies? Thanks!
Hi, I wanna ask about the cocoa powder brownie. Is there any crunchy crust at the topped of the brownie?
Love this! One note, Tartine’s brownies use brown sugar and result in a crackly top!
Good to know!
Do you have any advice or suggestions on how to make a CRUNCHY brownie. I like them better than gushy.
Do you have any advice or suggestions on how to make a CRUNCHY brownie. I like them better than fudgy.
Have you heard of brownie bark? My friend Kelly has a fabulous recipe: http://www.justataste.com/chewy-chocolate-brownie-bark-recipe/
Hi! I had a quick question. Can I make this in a 13 by 9 pan? I assume I would need to double the recipe?
My daughter is allergic to eggs (and peanuts, but that doesn’t really matter in baking). I have to bake everything for the family because of her egg allergy. (She is part of the few people who are allergic to eggs who can’t eat it in baked goods. Most people who are allergic to eggs can eat it in baked goods.)
I have become an expert in baking a lot of things, however, I have not tried brownies yet. I have found I get better egg free results from baking from a traditional recipe verses and egg free recipe I might find on the internet.
But when I try something new, I always do research to see if I can find something that might help me in thinking of the best way to replace an egg in the recipe. This article of yours is perfect. It gave me a lot of insight. I will be making some this weekend for a 4th of July party. I think I am going to replace the egg as usual (1 tbsp of plain yogurt for every egg, and bob’s red mill egg re-placer, following the package directions). But from what i know already, no egg makes things much more moist than with eggs, and makes them sticky. Your article gives me the perfect information to figure out what else I need to do to make some yummy brownies. Thanks!
I also wanted to mention, that I think if you do another one of these type of articles, I think it would be so cool if you could try one recipe with no eggs for people who might have this food allergies. Just a thought. (I get messages a lot from people who want to bake something and realize they have no eggs and want to know what to do. Great angle for an article as well because the typical response of, banana’s does not actually work all that well.)
Have you ever made a brownie using bread flour? If so what were the results? I accidentally purchased a six pound bag of bread flour and have no idea how to substitute for all purpose flour or even if it’s possible .
Haha! I’ve never used bread flour in brownies. I do use it ALL the time in my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe, however: https://www.handletheheat.com/ultimate-chocolate-chip-cookies/
This guide is so fun! Thank you so much for publishing it! I love doing what I call taste test between multiple recipes too, so I don’t do very many testing for specific variables like you did. It was really fun to compare your results with my favorite brownie recipe, and in the notes that I took about what I’d like to try… Cocoa powder, brown sugar, extra yolks, and whipping the sugar and butter… It turns out that my favorite recipe already Incorporated the brown sugar and the cocoa powder. My favorite brownies are from the King Arthur flour whole grain baking cookbook. Happy baking!
I know this is an old article, but I’m going to try this with 1/4 cup of Hershey’s chocolate syrup insteaf.
When I make these brownies they collapse in the middle and turn out mostly raw on the inside. Do you have any advice?
A quick note about the ‘cocoa’ substitution. If you are replacing (unsweetened) chocolate with cocoa, you must add additional fat. The ratio of cocoa to fat would be 3:1. If the recipe calls for 3 oz of chocolate, use 3 tablespoons of cocoa and 1 tablespoon of fat (oil, melted butter or shortening, etc.) This would be in addition to any fat already included in the recipe. To replace 3 ounces of semi-sweet, use 3T cocoa, 1 1/2T fat, and 1T sugar. I use this method all the time, since it works out much cheaper than squares or morsels if you do a lot of baking. Plus, there’s no soy lecithin in the cocoa powder substitution.
[ To make soy lecithin, soybean oil is extracted from the raw soybeans using a *chemical solvent* (usually hexane). Then, the crude soy oil goes through a ‘degumming’ process, wherein water is mixed thoroughly with the soy oil until the lecithin becomes hydrated and separates from the oil. Then, the lecithin is dried and occasionally *bleached using hydrogen peroxide*.] Ugh.
same for me! I made the recipe whipipng the eggs and sugar first they came out soo thin and a little raw and I had to leave them for a little over than 30 minutes.. I did pre-heat my oven.. I don’t know what could’ve happened 🙁
Thank you for this guide. It was very useful. I used various tips from this article, and modified a recipe that I was trying to perfect. It worked! I finally made good brownies. Thank you so much, and bless your heart for sharing all this information!
You definitely hit it right. Finally, my quest has put to an end for finding the perfect brownie recipes with different variants..hehe Thank Ms. Beautiful for your most interesting and informative guide. (=
My daughter baked a pan of box mix brownies yesterday and added equal amounts of too much water and cooking oil. They turned out, with, we think a spongy texture. What exactly does adjusting those two parts of the equation change for the outcome?
Yes, I did the egg mixed with sugar version and the same thing happened…. Super cripsy thick (2mm) top layer rose, rest collapsed and is mostly raw/fudgey after about an hr of baking. Still tastes good but i had to knock the crispy layer in chunks down onto the rest so it looks a little more like its suppoded to have a crisy crumble on top lol. Luckily just made for family so they don’t care what it looks like. What did I do wrong? Beat the egg too long?
how extremely useful! Love the scientific method here, will probably dispel a few untested brownie myths, thank you for doing all of the research and development involved with all of these ingredients and thanks for the additional links to your recipes!
Such a useful matter you expose here. I am planning to replace butter with oil in my brownies recipe. Awesome post! Thank you!
If increasing baking pan size for a given recipe, will possibly affect the texture of your recipe, then changing size of your recipe for a given size pan, will also affect texture. If it doesn’t, then ignore this post.
I don’t mind a “little” crackly crust on the top of my brownies but when I make them they are so crunchy on top along with being thick that it breaks off, what could I be doing wrong? My recipe consists of only cocoa powder, I add an extra yolk and use both granulated and brown sugar although more granulated. Any suggestions?
This is awesome! I am a kid using this for a science fair project and this is a fun splash of research!!!! Thank you very much, this is a great site!!
…except that the appropriate replacement for 2 oz. unsweetened chocolate is 1/3 cup cocoa and 2 tbsp butter. Of course your brownie is dry if you more than doubled the ultra fiber-rich cocoa.
Ha! I LOVE your cookie & brownie guides!
I’m new to AZ, & baking here is different, you need moisture in cakes & brownies, & can’t wait to make your “Ultimate Brownies” you’ve perfected! All the unsweetened cocoa brownie mixes just won’t do as you know they’re too dry!
Thank you! 🙂
Hi, my brownies sides always come out cracked and not even although I use parchment paper and oil
If your only option is bread flour, make sure just fold in at last and don’t overmix. I suppose using bread flour will result in a denser and chewier brownie. Add a tablespoon or two of oil because bread flour will absorb more moisture.
I see recipes using sour cream or cream in their brownie recipes. What does that do the taste?
Thank you so much for your thorough analysis. I am an avid baker and the first thing I learnt to bake were brownies from my grand mother.
So to this day, my favourite go to dessert is brownies. I too have tried umpteen recipes and often get confused as to which one is ideal.
Nevertheless, I’m still in search of the ultimate recipe. Do you feel that a mix of semi- sweet and dark chocolate makes a significant difference to the final taste?
I about 8 experiments with my basic 8x8x2″ pan recipe (1/2 c butter; 1 c sugar; 2 large eggs; 1/2 c flour; 3oz chocolate; vanilla and salt). All my variations resulted in gooey fudgy centers and chewy edges.
The variables involve the chocolate, sugar and fat.
For extra chocolate flavor, I replaced 1oz chocolate with 3 Tbs cocoa + 1 Tbs butter (I had a mishap with one of the eggs when I tested leaving out the extra 1 Tbs butter. I think it will work without it but I’m not sure.) The cocoa worked best when added with the flour.
For the other 2 oz chocolate I used either unsweet or semi-sweet with variations in the sugar:
2 oz semi-sweet chocolate = crackly crust
2 oz unsweetened chocolate = no crackly crust
2 oz unsweetened chocolate + 2 Tbs extra sugar added with butter = crackly crust
the extra sugar didn’t work as well when added later with the rest of the sugar
1 Tbs more sugar (making 3 Tbs extra) to compensate for the lack of sugar in the cocoa seemed to add a bit more crunch
My technique: Melt chocolate, all butter and extra sugar. Let it cool some so it won’t cook the egg. I usually transferred it to the mixer bowl and whipped it with the whisk attachment to help it cool faster. When it was cool enough I added the sugar then the eggs one at a time and whipped about 10 minutes on high (one version got a meringue like texture very quickly so it wasn’t whipped as long). Then I added the vanilla and the flour mixture (flour, cocoa, salt), mixing only enough to incorporate it.
Note: I didn’t try the whipped sugar and eggs or whipping less than about 10 minutes except for the one time it became meringue-like. Also, I didn’t test the temperature of the chocolate/butter mix when the sugar was added so that was a variable that may or may not have affected results. I, also, didn’t try replacing some of the sugar with brown sugar (I might try up to 1/4th brown) or putting 2-3 Tbs of the 1 c sugar in with the butter instead of adding more sugar with the unsweet chocolate version.
Bottom Line for a crispy crust (for this recipe using equivalent of 3oz chocolate):
1 Tbs cocoa + 2 oz semi-sweet chocolate = 1 Tbs cocoa + 2 oz unsweet chocolate + 2-3 Tbs sugar as long as the sugar is melted with the chocolate.