Tessa’s Recipe Rundown
Taste: Just the right amount of chocolate and sweetness.
Texture: CHEWY, of course 🙂
Ease: Super easy. One bowl, no melting chocolate, and no electric mixer.
Appearance: You can just see how gooey and moist these are!
Pros: Better than boxed and almost as easy.
Cons: None.
I make this again? Absolutely.
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I have shared a whole lot of brownie recipes over the years. Almost 40 to be exact!
Between all that brownie baking and completing my Ultimate Brownie Guide I’m pretty much your go-to brownie expert for the best brownie recipe. Really, I should put that on my business card.
But what I realized in looking at all those brownie recipes is that I’ve never shared a CHEWY brownie recipe. Sure, my Ultimate Brownies have a good level of chewiness. But they’re also very rich and fudgy. So these Chewy Brownies have been a long time coming. If you love box mix brownies, you’ll love these both for their chewiness and for how easy they are. Much quicker and easier than my Ultimate Brownies!
I think if you read some of the comments for these best homemade brownies below you’ll want to make this recipe ASAP. Just see what Susan said:
“These are the BEST brownies ever! My husband says that in the 31 years we’ve been married and I’ve been baking these absolutely his favorite of all time.“
The Kitchn recently tested this Chewy Brownie recipe, with author Grace Elkus raving about how quick and easy this recipe is! She says the brownies “form a shiny, crackly top as promised. Each square is thick and decadent, with melty chocolate chips studded throughout.” Thanks so much to Grace Elkus and The Kitchn team for trying this recipe.
Bon Appétit also recently used this Chewy Brownie recipe as part of their research in their quest to create a perfect brownie. Thanks so much to Chris Morocco and the Bon Appétit team for including us!
Sprinkle of Science
How to Make Chewy Brownies
Chocolate & Cocoa Powder
Unlike my Ultimate Fudgy Brownies, which utilize two types of melted chocolate, these brownies get their main chocolate flavor from cocoa powder with semi-sweet chocolate chips stirred into the batter. Cocoa powder definitely yields a chewier brownie and has a flavor reminiscent of boxed brownies.
The photos on this post show what the brownies look like if you use regular unsweetened cocoa powder. In the recipe video, I used Hershey’s Special Dark cocoa powder. It gave the brownies an ultra dark chocolaty appearance with a little less sweetness.
Since creating this video, however, Hershey’s has changed the formula of that specific cocoa powder to a Dutched cocoa powder. I recommend sticking with a natural cocoa powder, such as Ghirardelli Cocoa Powder or Penzey’s Natural Cocoa Powder, for best results. Learn more about the differences between Dutch-process cocoa powder and natural cocoa powder here.
Feel free to fold in any kind of chocolate chips you want from dark chocolate or milk chocolate, but semisweet is my favorite. Whatever you do, don’t skip the chocolate chips! They help to develop that shiny crust on top of brownies.
Fat
With any cocoa powder-based brownie recipe, we need quite a bit of fat to prevent the cocoa powder from drying the brownies out and making them crumbly. In looking at what makes box mix brownies so chewy, it appears that the combination of saturated (solid) fats and unsaturated (liquid) fats is the winning answer. According to Cooks’ Illustrated, boxed brownies have the saturated fat component covered which is why you add oil (unsaturated) to the mix. I opted for a combination of melted butter and vegetable oil for the best marriage of taste and texture.
Make sure your vegetable oil is fresh to avoid any off flavors and use unsalted butter so you can fully control the level of saltiness. I haven’t tested these brownies with canola oil.
For a full breakdown on these two types of fats and how they affect flavor, tenderness, and texture, check out my Butter vs. Oil in Baking article. There are lots more side-by-side comparisons like this one (and not just with brownies!):
Sugar
I stuck with granulated sugar here because although I love the taste of brown sugar, I didn’t want to add any more moisture (brown sugar contributes more moisture due to the molasses that’s added in) to these already very moist and rich brownies. Too much moisture can create brownies with lots of holes on top, instead of that shiny tissue-thin crust. Whatever you do, don’t reduce the sugar in these brownies! Learn more about the many functions of sugar in brownies here.
Eggs
2 large eggs is pretty standard for an 8 by 8-inch brownie recipe, but I just had to add in an egg yolk for the extra dose of chewiness and richness it gives. The protein and the fat in the egg yolk help achieve those textures. We use cold eggs, instead of room temperature, to prevent the brownies from doming and to increase moisture with a tighter crumb texture.
Flour
All-purpose flour is the way to go here – cake flour makes these brownies way too tender and light. We can achieve enough chewiness without having to use bread flour, which can prevent an extra trip to the store for a lot of people. To make chewy AND fudgy brownies, we only need to use a little bit of flour. Any more flour will create drier or cakier brownies. If you want to be super accurate and weigh your flour, 1/2 cup equals 63 grams or 2.25 ounces. Check out my How to Measure Flour article for step-by-step instructions for weighing dry ingredients using a digital scale.
If you live in a very humid environment, or really dislike any kind of “greasiness,” you may want to add an extra 2 tablespoons of flour to your brownie batter mixture.
Leavener
With my brownie recipes, I usually prefer a very small amount or no chemical leavener (baking soda or baking powder). The reason is because I like brownies to be very rich and on the denser side, not even remotely cakey. Since they lift and give a lighter airier texture to baked goods, we’re only using 1/8 teaspoon baking soda here for just enough leavening to get a nice thick texture.
Cornstarch
This little secret ingredient really helps to improve the texture of these brownies so they’re that much closer to a box mix texture. 1 tablespoon of cornstarch makes the brownies thicker and improves that crust on top.
Make sure to measure correctly, and don’t skip this ingredient! When shooting the photos for my article on how to make brownies with a shiny, thin crust, my food photographer captured the shocking differences between a batch made with 1 tablespoon of cornstarch vs brownies made with an accidental amount of 1 teaspoon cornstarch. The bottom brownies also had no chocolate chips. Take a look:
Can I Add Nuts to Brownies?
Yes! You can add 3/4 cup chopped walnuts or pecans. You can add them either in addition to the chocolate chips or in place of the chocolate chips. Just note if you remove the chocolate chips your crust on top may not be as shiny. For best flavor, try toasting the nuts on a lined tray in a 350°F oven for about 6 to 8 minutes, stirring once.
How Long to Bake Brownies:
Bake these brownies in a 325°F oven for about 30 minutes to avoid overbaking. There will absolutely be moist crumbs attached to a tester by the end of the baking time. That’s what we want! Even after 30 minutes if the middle still seems too moist, just remove the brownies from the oven. Carry-over cooking, the residual heat of the oven and pan, will continue to cook the brownies.
Some readers have said their brownies were really undercooked after 30 minutes. I’m guessing they used a glass baking pan, which I DON’T recommend for this recipe. I recommend a metal baking pan like this one lined with foil or parchment paper. Learn more about the differences between Glass vs. Metal Baking Pans here.
Also, you might want to check your oven temperature with an oven thermometer as many home ovens run cold (especially when they say they’ve just preheated).
For best results, allow the brownies to cool completely before slicing and serving.
How to Store Brownies:
The brownies definitely taste best the day they are baked, but can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days at room temperature or up to 5 days in the fridge. They are even more fudgy when they’re chilled.
Brownies Substitutions:
This brownie recipe is written exactly the way it is for very specific reasons, as noted in the explanations above. If you can’t use one of the ingredients listed, take a look at my extensive brownie recipe index for other options (including coconut oil brownies). If you try to reduce the sugar, use a sugar substitute, use a butter substitute, or make this recipe vegan the results will NOT be the same. Feel free to add in nuts, chips, toffee bits, or anything else to the batter (1/2 cup to 1 cup, depending on how much you’d like).
Tessa’s Favorite Tools for This Recipe
- A metal baking pan (not glass) to avoid under-baking
- Digital kitchen scale to ensure your brownies don’t end up dry, dense, or cakey
- An oven thermometer is a game-changer as many non-commercial ovens run colder than the gauge displays
More Brownies Recipes:
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Best Ever Chewy Brownies
Ingredients
- 5 tablespoons (71 grams) unsalted butter
- 1 1/4 cups (249 grams) granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs plus 1 egg yolk, cold
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil
- 3/4 cup (75 grams) unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/2 cup (63 grams) all-purpose flour
- 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup (128 grams) semisweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325°F. Line an 8 by 8-inch light-colored metal pan* with foil or parchment paper and spray with nonstick cooking spray.
- In a microwave safe bowl, add the butter and sugar. Microwave for about 1 minute, or until the butter is melted. Whisk in the eggs, egg yolk, and vanilla. Stir in the oil and cocoa powder.
- With a rubber spatula, stir in the flour, baking soda, cornstarch, and salt until combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.
- Spread the brownie batter evenly into the prepared pan. Place in the oven and bake for 30 minutes, or until the brownies are set and a cake tester inserted into the center has moist crumbs attached. Do not overcook. Let cool completely to solidify before cutting and serving.
- Brownies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. Brownies will be gooey when served warm, chewy when served at room temperature, and fudgy when served chilled.
Recipe Notes
This recipe was originally published in 2017 and updated in 2021 with more tips and new photos. Photos by Ashley McLaughlin.
May 2021 Baking Challenge
This recipe was the May 2021 pick for our monthly baking challenge! Every month you can join the challenge by baking the recipe and snapping a photo for a chance to win prizes! Learn more about my monthly baking challenges here. Check out everyone’s brownies:
Holy swoon, Batman! Absolutely heavenly! I’ve tried a few different recipes and since I have celiac I use a gluten free flour blend. This one is my favorite.
I particularly enjoyed reading on the science behind the ingredients and how changing them will alter a recipe. That has been incredibly insightful. Thank you!
Best recipe I tried so far. However I still cannot figure out how to make the crust shiny. Any suggestions?
Hi Rawyah! So glad to hear that you enjoyed these brownies! Check out this article Tessa wrote, full of tons of tips on this 🙂
If you use a non-stick backing pan and spray it with cooking spray do you really need parchment paper?
Hi Steven! We really recommend parchment paper regardless of the pan, but nonstick pans are often dark in color and therefore heat more aggressively than the light-colored pan we recommend. More on this in the Tip Box, above the recipe. Parchment also provides an easy way to remove the brownies from the pan, and means an easier cleanup, too, so it’s really win-win 😉 Feel free to skip it if you don’t have any, but we definitely recommend keeping a roll on hand for all baking. I hope that helps! Happy baking!
Its a big yes for our family I used 1/2 cup of granulated sugar and 1/4 Honey, 1/4 tsp of espresso powder and only had cacao. I used melted butter and omitted the vegetable oil. I added the cacao into the melted butter with the vanilla extract to release those aromatics, let it cool* then added to the egg/sugar! The cornstarch and extra yolk is such a nice touch for texture. Thankyou
Can I add a pinch of xantham Gum instead of corn starch?
Hi Steph! We haven’t tried that, so I can’t say for sure. Feel free to experiment and try that out – but I recommend checking out Tessa’s tips and info in the Tip Box above the recipe before baking. Let us know how it goes 🙂
Loooove these brownies!!! Totally awesome in a pinch and they barely last in my home! I’ve made them almost 3 times this week as a treat not just because we love them but because they’re just so darn easy to make! Lots of love and many thanks 🙂
I added caramel swirls and caramel sauce to mine and skipped the chocolate chips! So good!
Best browny recipe I came across.
Made them 3-4 times now and the taste is fantastic! I weigh all ingredients and even bought the suggested pan after the first bake. I do have a slight problem though; the thickness does not stay uniform throughout the pan. Edge pieces stay the post cooling off thickness but the middle pieces compress quite noticeably. Any suggestions?
So happy you love them, George, and now use a metal baking pan! Without having baked alongside you, it’s tough to say why your brownies are sinking. Sunken brownies are typically due to not using a digital scale to measure your ingredients, overmixing, or underbaking. I’d suggest for your next batch to pay attention to mixing in the dry ingredients and chocolate chips until just combined. You could experiment with adding a minute or two to your bake time too! If you live in a really humid environment, you could also try adding an extra 2 tablespoons of flour to see if that helps (if you experience greasiness). Tessa shares a few more tips in the tip box above the recipe if you’d like to read more in-depth. If all else fails, a scoop of ice cream on top solves everything 😉
What adaptation would you suggest to make it lower in sugar?
Also,
Hi Chen! We don’t recommend lowering the sugar in this recipe – learn more about that here. If you have tried these brownies and find them a little sweeter than you’d prefer, we recommend experimenting with using dark, bittersweet, or unsweetened chocolate chips in place of the semisweet chocolate chips in the recipe, to balance the sweetness. You can also experiment with adding a little more salt, which also helps balance sweetness. I hope this helps! Happy baking 🙂
Great chewy texture. Best ever texture, actually ! However, in Europe, we don’t have the same kind of cocoa and following the recipe, I found the taste was too strong, with my Van Houten cacao. Any way I could replace cocoa with melted chocolate instead ? Thanks a lot for all the great recipes!
HI Ann! We’re so glad to hear that you enjoyed these brownies! I would recommend trying different brands of cocoa powder until you find one you love – or see if you can get something like this cocoa powder online. Melted chocolate cannot be simply swapped out for cocoa powder or vice versa, as they work very differently in a recipe. Adjusting the quantity of cocoa would also alter the texture of the brownies, so avoid making such adjustments. Feel free to alternatively give Tessa’s Ultimate Fudgy Brownie Recipe here a try instead – it uses only melted chocolate, no cocoa, to give a tall, very fudgy brownie with an amazing crust. I hope that helps! Happy baking 🙂
thanks a lot for your reply! Have already tried the fudgy brownies… they’re delicious too!
Glad you enjoyed those, Ann!
These are incredible!!
Baked them in silicone molds and turned out fantastic, but I want to get the same metal pan you use, however, instead of getting the 8×8, I want the 9×9.. how much more of the ingredients should I use so they come out equally chewy, tall and delicious.. ??
Also, if I chill the dough overnight or a few hours before baking, how would that impact my final result??
Thanks for experimenting and sharing!
Hi Susana! We recommend sticking with an 8×8-inch pan for these brownies. That size pan is SO helpful for countless recipes beyond brownies – blondies, cookie bars, cheesecake bars, and more! If you have your heart set on a 9×9-inch pan, feel free to experiment with lowering the bake time to accommodate the thinner brownies, or calculate the volume of an 8×8-inch pan vs. a 9×9-inch pan, to determine how much extra of each ingredient you’ll need to keep the brownies to the same thickness. It will take some tinkering (especially since a partial egg can be a pain to figure out!). Good luck and happy baking 🙂
These are fantastic! To be truthful, the pictures almost made them look dry, which was a turnoff for me at first, but when I realized that I needed a dessert that could be made in under an hour, these brownies came to the rescue! Let me say, they are nothing like the picture! I baked them for exactly 30 minutes, which was the perfect amount of time- they were thick, fudgy, and SO decadent- no dryness at all. I did have a little messup which was all my fault- I cut the parchment paper too long and when I slid the pan into the oven, the parchment folded over and baked into the brownies. I about panicked when I took them out and had to peel it off, leaving the top looking terrible. I just whipped up some super fast brownie frosting though, topped with sprinkles, and no one ever knew. I got rave reviews from everybody, and I think that these are now my new favorite brownie!