Tessa’s Recipe Rundown
Taste: The perfect balance of chocolate sweetness.
Texture: CHEWY, of course 🙂
Ease: Super easy. One bowl, no electric mixer needed.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe: This Brownie Recipe is WAY better than a box mix and almost as easy. It’s my go-to recipe!
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These Chewy Brownies are my go-to recipe when I need a quick, easy, crowd-pleasing dessert. I’m not exaggerating when I say I’ve made it over 200 times. It’s truly the best!
There’s even a secret ingredient that helps to mimic that box-mix texture (but with way better flavor!).
The Kitchn tested this recipe, raving about how quick and easy it is! Even Bon Appétit used the recipe as part of their research in their quest to create a perfect chocolate brownie.
What Makes Cookies Chewy, Crisp, or Cakey?
My free guide reveals the ingredients and tweaks that matter.
As a trained chef, it surprises people to learn brownies are among my favorite things to bake at home. I don’t need something fancy, I need something satisfying and that chewy texture is where it’s at.
I have shared over 50 Brownie Recipes over the years. My Ultimate Brownies are rich, dense, and fudgy. My Brown Butter Brownies have the most stunning crackly crust. And my Toffee Brownies are have a unique crunch.
But these brownies are my everyday go-to reicpe. Check out just one of the 1,000+ 5-star reviews for these best homemade brownies:
Reader Love
I have been using this recipe for about a year now! It is the easiest recipe I have ever used, I get so many compliments on these brownies!! Thank you thank you thank you!!! ❤️
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Tessa’s Tip
Struggling with gummy, collapsed, underbaked, or dry-edged brownies? Ditch the glass pan and use a light-colored metal baking pan instead. Learn more about the differences between Glass vs. Metal Baking Pans here.
Sprinkle of Science
How to Make Chewy Brownies
The Cocoa Powder
I recommend using Dutch-processed cocoa powder for a deeper flavor and fudgier texture. Natural (aka unsweetened) cocoa will offer a milder chocolate flavor and a slightly drier but chewier texture. My favorite Dutch cocoa powder for brownies is Penzey’s or Guittard. Learn more about how Natural and Dutch-process cocoas affect your baking here.
The Chocolate Chips
I prefer semisweet chocolate chips, but you can use any kind you like–just keep in mind it will affect the sweetness of the brownies. You can also add 3/4 cup chopped walnuts or pecans in addition to the chocolate chips. Just don’t skip the chocolate chips entirely, as they’re key to achieving that shiny, crinkly crust on top of brownies. Learn my top FOUR methods for achieving a shiny thin brownie crust here.
The Fat
- Melted butter plus vegetable oil provides the best taste and texture.
- You can use avocado oil or any other neutral-flavored oil instead of vegetable oil.
- Make sure your oil is fresh to avoid any off flavors.
- Check out my side-by-side baking experiments with Butter vs Oil here.
The Sugar
Don’t reduce the sugar in this Brownie Recipe, as this will cause dry, crumbly brownies that will stale faster. Learn more about sugar’s functions in brownies here.
The Eggs
These Chewy Brownies use two whole eggs plus an additional egg yolk for EXTRA chewiness and richness. Using cold eggs prevents doming and increases moisture.
The Flour
A small amount of all-purpose flour is essential for creating Chewy Brownies – but avoid adding too much, as this can cause dry, cakey brownies. Use a digital kitchen scale to prevent accidental overmeasuring. If you don’t have a digital scale, use the spoon-and-level method described here.
Secret Ingredient: Cornstarch!
Cornstarch mimics the texture of box mix brownies, creating thicker, chewier brownies with a nice shiny crust. Don’t skip it if possible!
Avoid Leavening for Fudgy & Chewy Brownies
I prefer no baking soda or baking powder for rich, dense brownies that are not even remotely cakey. If you’re team cakey, don’t even bother with this recipe. It’ll be far too chewy and fudgy for you!
Can I Double this Chewy Brownies Recipe?
Yes! Double all ingredients and bake in a 9 by 13-inch light-colored metal baking pan (don’t use a glass pan!) and add a few minutes to the baking time.
Storing & Freezing Brownies
Store 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!
To freeze, wrap the cooled whole slab or individual slices of brownies in plastic wrap inside an airtight container. Freeze for up to three months. Thaw overnight in the fridge, or for a couple hours at room temperature, before serving.
Brownie Substitutions
This Chewy Brownie recipe is written to yield a perfect chewy brownie. Altering any ingredients will change the outcome. If you can’t use one of the ingredients listed, check out my extensive brownie recipe index for tons of other brownie options (including coconut oil brownies).
More Brownies Recipes You’ll Love:
- Malted Brownies – made with brown butter!
- Toffee Brownies
- Copycat Cosmic Brownies – ultimate nostalgia!
- Peanut Butter Stuffed Brownies
Best Ever Chewy Brownies
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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 (74 grams) neutral oil (like vegetable or avocado)
- 3/4 cup (75 grams) cocoa powder*
- 1/2 cup (63 grams) all-purpose flour, measured correctly
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1/4 teaspoon fine sea 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 and egg yolk, whisking vigorously for 1 minute. Whisk in the vanilla, then stir in the oil and cocoa powder.
- With a rubber spatula, stir in the flour, 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
The Ultimate Cookie Handbook
Learn the sweet SCIENCE of cookie baking in a fun, visual way to customize your own recipes frustration-free. Plus, my best 50+ homemade cookies!
This recipe was originally published in 2017 and has been updated with additional baking tips and new photos. Recipe photos by Joanie Simon and Baking Science photos by Ashley McLaughlin.
My new favorite. I have never once written a review. I feel like that alone speaks for itself. Lol. Thanks for the recipe!
Aw yay!! So happy to hear how much you love this recipe (it’s my favorite too!)! Thanks for taking the time to comment, we appreciate it 🙂
Just made this and I have to say, I am terribly disappointed. Here’s why…
TASTE: Unbalanced, extremely rich. Can a brownie have too much chocolate? This recipe will show you that yes, it can. I was expecting a better version of a favorite classic: simple and “just the right amount of chocolate…” This isn’t that.
TEXTURE: Flat. Like a sad flourless “cake” or a really bad gluten-free dessert.
I am an avid baker and I usually don’t have issues with recipes turning out. I measure all of my ingredients with a scale for accuracy. I never overmix, and I use quality ingredients every time. This cake lacked the caramelized quality & texture of a chewy brownie. The lack of brown sugar and the use of chocolate chips should’ve been a red flag.
Sorry to hear of your issues, Als! These brownies shouldn’t be flat (do you mean they sunk in the oven?), and I’m sorry you didn’t care for the taste! I’m honestly not much of a chocolate fan myself, but these are my absolute favorite brownies, and I’d love to help figure out what went wrong. Did you substitute any ingredients or type of chocolate used in this recipe? Tessa stuck with granulated sugar for this recipe instead of brown sugar because she didn’t want to add any more moisture to the brownies (brown sugar contributes more moisture due to the molasses that’s added in)…too much moisture creates brownies that have a lot of holes of top instead of that shiny tissue thin crust. Chocolate chips were added for the extra texture component and flavor, but they also contribute to the tissue thin crust, as explained in this article HERE. I’m so glad to hear you use a scale and that you use quality ingredients, but it does sound like your brownies may have been over mixed as to why they turned out flat. What kind of pan did you use?
These were so good!! Not super chewy, not super cakey. I did use 1/4 cup turbinado sugar with the white sugar and we have black cocoa we need to use up, so subbed 1/4 cup of that in with the cocoa.
So happy you loved this recipe!
I love this recipe. I made it countless times as it has the texture of a brownie that I’ve been looking for – moist and chewy. The recipe is simple and instructions are easy to follow. My son and his friends loves it and so are my nephews and niece.
So happy to hear how much you love them and that they’re such a hit with your family and friends! Thanks for taking the time to comment and let us know, we appreciate it 🙂
Its an ok Brownie but not chewy at all. I’m not a fan of boxed things but it’s definitely not beating the $2 Betty Crocker double chocolate one! I wish I’d find my go to chewy recipe!
I tried this recipe and it truly is the best chewy brownie!! I’m a retired chef who worked in both culinary and baking and pastry, but was never quite able to get the brownie to taste like I wanted it to (you know, the box kind LOL). Thanks so much for such a wonderful recipe. I am presently working on cakes, cookies and brownies vegan style. I’ve run across a new product (not aquafaba or flax or standard egg replacer) and I’m hoping to have success with that. If you have an email, I would enjoy sharing my progress in replacing eggs in several pastries including pate a choux (yes, it’s really possible!!) Again, thanks for your informative professional videos!!!
Thank you for the recipe. Do you know approximately how much a large egg weighs? I’m in Australia and just want to make sure I use the same size egg. Thanks!
Hi Bev! Sure, no problem. A large egg in shell weighs about 56 grams. Out of shell is about 50 grams.
Hi
Can I substitute chocolate chips with chocolate chunks?
Feel free to, but we do recommend chocolate chips specifically as they help develop that shiny crust on top of the brownies 🙂
I used chocolate chunks and the tase was fantastic, and i also had the shiny crust, win-win
I used a 7×7 pan and the middle turned shallower, was it cause of the smaller pan which i used? Or something else?
I’m so glad 🙂 For the shallower middle, do you mean your brownies sunk in the middle? Sunken brownies are typically from overmixing the batter. You also want to make sure you’re using a light-colored metal pan. Not using a metal pan will result in edges that dry out before the center finishes baking. I hope that helps!
This recipe is awesome. I usually don’t like when people rate and comment on a recipe that they modified, however, I did just that!!. One thing I always do is make it as written first. Since I’m GF, I couldn’t taste them, but I knew by the texture that they had to be good with GF flour.
I used Better Batter gluten free flour and these were the best brownies I have had. Chewy! Crisp edges! Rich chocolate flavor!
I could tell by the recipe that it was going to be good by the careful choice and amounts of ingredients.
Anyone wanting to try this GF, it works. I only swapped the flours, and kept the cornstarch.
Thank you
Thanks so much for taking the time to comment with your substitutions, Frank! I’m so happy to hear it worked perfectly for you!
I made this gluten free and used 3 different types of cocoa. Everyone loved them. Thanks.
As with most baked recipes, is the flour presifted and then measured?
There is no need to sift your flour at all with this recipe. Typically when a recipe calls for flour needing to be sifted, it’ll be written in the ingredients list, in either two different ways: One: “63 grams sifted flour”, or TWO: “63 grams flour, sifted”. The first starts out with flour being sifted prior to measuring, the second calls for measuring your flour first, then sifting. You can trust that with all of our recipes we will note if the flour needs to be sifted or not. I hope that helps!
Awesome – thanks for your efforts! This is now my favorite after trying several recipes, replacing the one that adds some powdered sugar (to get cornstarch into the mix). I wonder if you have any tweaking-tips to customize them for my personal preference of dense, firm, bendy-chewy brownies? I’ve always prefer the edges (especially the corners!) because I like the texture better. It’s hard to explain, but while I definitely learn towards moist and fudgy over cakelike, I don’t like my brownies to be too moist … I don’t want fudge. I like them kinda’ hard and “tough”, like “Brownie Jerky”! 🙂 I often have to keep them in the fridge to keep the texture the way I want it. So … any tips for a room-temperature brownie that has the same texture quality? Also, I read that Tapioca starch gives a more glossy finish than Cornstarch and I wonder if it might result in an even better shiny, crinkly top crust on brownies (?) … though the ration is 2:1 (tapioca:cornstarch) so maybe it’s too much and would affect the batter in other negative ways (?). Thanks, again, for sharing these. Oh, I almost forgot … I love vanilla and added (2) tsp instead of your recommended (1) … would adding even more have any negative side effects? Oh, “one more thing” (I think you’re too young to know the TV detective Columbo reference here, Ha!) … it’s interesting to see how diverse the photo entries are for the Monthly Baking Challenge … so many variables, I guess, even when following the same recipe! Hey, have you ever used Andes Creme de Menthe in brownies? I sometimes use about 1/3 of a candy piece on top of each brownie section, pushed into the batter just before baking. OK, sorry to ramble on … all those photos got me excited! Ciao (“chow”, keeping the foodie theme) – Keep Safe!
Hi Scott! So happy to see how much you love this recipe, we always love seeing reader’s feedback! We haven’t tried experimenting with this recipe to customize in the way you explained, so I can’t say for sure! Adding additional liquids to any recipe can cause issues in the way it bakes up, so I’d be careful adding too much more vanilla; however, you’re welcome to experiment 🙂 Adding Andes chocolate to brownies would be a great addition! “Chow” 🙂