Tessa’s Recipe Rundown
Taste: Ultra chocolaty. This recipe uses a combination of semisweet chocolate chips and unsweetened chocolate to give you a knockout punch of chocolaty goodness.
Texture: The best part. These brownies are thick, fudgy, and chewy. They are ultra-moist without feeling heavy and underbaked.
Ease: These brownies take slightly more work than some recipes, but I promise that fudgy consistency and ultra-crinkly crust are totally worth it.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe: Brownie perfection.
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These Ultimate Brownies are the definition of FUDGY. As dense, rich, and fudgy as a brownie could be without actually being candy.
I’ve shared a LOT of Brownie Recipes throughout the years. Each recipe meets different texture and flavor cravings.
This recipe only took 6 batches to perfect. I wanted to give you the ultimate version of this Fudgy Brownie Recipe, so I tweaked and adjusted until the texture was perfect.
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These Ultimate Brownies are ultra fudgy, packed with rich chocolate flavor, and have the most incredible brownie crust imaginable.
Read through all my tips and tricks below for the perfect Fudgy Brownies everyone will adore!
Sprinkle of Science
How to Make the Ultimate FUDGY Brownies
What Kind of Chocolate is Best in Fudgy Brownies?
With making Fudgy Brownies, melted chocolate is key. If we add cocoa powder to this recipe, the texture can become more cakey or chewy instead of fudgy, rich, and dense.
We are using two types of chocolate: semisweet chocolate chips and unsweetened chocolate. They’re melted together with the butter to form the base of this recipe.
I find this gives the perfect balance of chocolate flavor without tasting too bitter or intense. Plus, the chocolate chips play a secret role: they help to form that brownie crust on top!
Be sure to let the melted chocolate cool slightly before adding it to the batter, you don’t want to scramble your eggs with molten hot chocolate.
Learn more about Chocolate in Baking here.
The Butter in Ultimate Brownies
The recipe takes 1 1/2 sticks of unsalted butter (6 ounces, 170 grams, or 12 tablespoons) and melts it down with the chocolate. This helps prevent the chocolate from seizing if melted by itself, and allows the ingredients to become homogenized.
To make these Ultimate Brownies ultra thick and tall, we’re basically baking a 9×13-inch pan worth of batter in an 8×8-inch pan. That’s why there seems to be so much butter!
Why do we melt butter in brownie recipes instead of beating room temperature butter with sugar? Because that helps give a rich, chewy, fudgy texture. Beating butter incorporates air and gives a more light, airy, cakey texture, which we don’t want in a brownie. (Well, you might want that, but I don’t!)
I actually recently experimented with Butter vs. Oil in Brownies to see how the type of fat used affects the final result. Check out my Butter vs. Oil in Baking article for a full breakdown on each of these fats and how they affect tenderness, flavor, and texture in baked goods (and not just brownies). You might just understand why I opted to only use butter in these Fudgy Brownies!
Can I Use Salted Butter Instead?
Yes, just omit the salt called for in the recipe.
How Much Sugar in Brownies?
We’re using 1 1/2 cups of granulated sugar. Again, if this seems like a lot, that’s because these are very tall brownies, so there is a lot of brownie batter.
Also, we’re using a large amount of unsweetened chocolate, so we need to sweeten the brownies up a little. I promise it won’t make them too sweet!
Note: the sugar doesn’t just provide sweetness, it also affects the texture. Sugar is essential to creating ultra moist and rich brownies. If you reduce the sugar, the brownies become dry and cakey. Learn more about sugar’s many roles in baking brownies here.
How to Get Brownies With a Shiny, Crinkly Crust on Top
In these Ultimate Brownies, we use an electric mixer to beat the sugar with the eggs until the mixture is light and ribbon-thick.
Why? This ensures the sugar is dissolved into the batter, enabling a soft yet fudgy texture and stunning shiny, crackly crust. I learned this technique from this brownie recipe!
Note: The amount of time it takes for your mixer to beat the eggs and sugar will vary. The mixture should lighten in color and become really thick. This can take anywhere from 3 to 8 minutes, depending on your machine and kitchen environment.
More tips for achieving those perfectly crinkly crusts in my How to Make Brownies with Shiny, Thin Crust article. Lots of shocking side-by-side comparisons included, like this one below:
Want Fudgy, Chewy Brownies? Add an Extra Egg Yolk!
Eggs not only act as a binding agent in baked goods, but they also add structure, richness, and enhance texture – but too many eggs (and especially the egg whites!) can cause a cakey texture.
This recipe calls for three whole eggs plus one egg yolk. Be sure to use large eggs (about 56 grams in shell).
Why the extra yolk? The fat in the yolk creates a rich, moist, fudgy, chewy texture, without causing cakiness!
I was so pleased when I discovered I was able to add an egg yolk and STILL get that tissue-thin crust on top. Beating the eggs and sugar is pretty magical.
The Flour
All-purpose flour is the way to go here. Cake flour makes these brownies way too tender and light.
To make perfectly Fudgy Brownies, we only need to use a little bit of flour. Any more flour will create tough, dry, or cakey brownies.
I highly recommend weighing your flour with a digital kitchen scale, but if you don’t have one, be sure to use the spoon and level method to measure your flour to avoid dry brownies.
Important: How to Tell When Brownies are Done Baking?
Bake these Ultimate Brownies in a 350°F oven for 35 to 40 minutes. There should be moist crumbs attached to a tester by the end of the baking time.
The brownies will continue to set as they cool. This recipe must be served after the brownies have cooled to room temperature completely.
In fact, they’re even more fudgy and delicious when served chilled!
If you prefer less rich and gooey brownies, add 5 to 10 minutes to the baking time.
Use a Metal Pan for Baking Brownies!
Glass and ceramic pans will not work for this recipe. They take longer to heat up and will prevent the center of the brownies from cooking before the outside edges are too hard. You’ll be left with gummy brownies instead of perfectly fudgy brownies. This is my favorite pan to use for brownies. Learn more in my Glass vs. Metal Baking Pans article.
How to Cut Brownies Perfectly
For perfectly clean, neat brownie slices, check out my How to Cut Brownies Cleanly in 5 Steps article.
How to Store Ultimate Fudgy Brownies
The Ultimate Fudgy Brownies can be stored inside an airtight container for up to 2 days at room temperature or up to 4 days in the fridge. I actually prefer to serve them chilled – they’re even fudgier when cold!
Recipe Substitutions
This Fudgy Brownie Recipe is written to yield specific textures, as noted in the explanations above. If you try to reduce the sugar, use a sugar substitute, or alter ingredients, the results will NOT be the same. Feel free to add nuts, chocolate chips, toffee bits, or anything else to the batter.
More Brownie Recipes:
- Best Chewy Brownies – my most popular recipe!
- Best Easy Brownies
- Coconut Oil Brownies
- Copycat Cosmic Brownies
- Malted Brown Butter Brownies
Ultimate Fudgy Brownies
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Ingredients
- 1 cup (170 grams) semisweet chocolate chips
- 4 ounces (113 grams) high quality unsweetened chocolate, chopped
- 1 1/2 sticks (170 grams) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
- 3 large eggs plus 1 egg yolk
- 1 1/2 cups (300 grams) granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup (94 grams) all-purpose flour
- 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line an 8×8-inch metal baking pan with foil or parchment and spray with nonstick cooking spray. Do NOT use glass or ceramic baking pans for this recipe, they will not allow the brownies to cook through the center.
- In a large microwave-safe bowl, combine the chocolate chips, unsweetened chocolate, and butter. Microwave for 1 minute, then stir. Continue heating in 30-second bursts, stirring between each burst, until the mixture is melted and smooth but not scorched. Remove from the microwave and let cool slightly.
- In a large bowl, use an electric mixer to beat the eggs, egg yolk, and sugar on medium-high speed until light and thick and ribbony, about 3 to 5 minutes or more depending on your mixer. Beat in the vanilla extract.
- Using a rubber spatula, gently stir in the cooled chocolate-butter mixture. Gently fold in the flour and salt until combined.
- Pour the batter into the prepared baking pan. Bake until a tester comes out with moist crumbs still attached, about 35 to 40 minutes. Do not overbake the brownies as they will continue to bake once they’re out of the oven.
- Let cool completely to room temperature before slicing. Serve at room temperature or chilled for an even fudgier texture.
Recipe Notes
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This recipe was originally published in 2014 and updated with additional recipe tips and baking science info. Photos by Ashley McLaughlin.
Tessa,
I want to make these for a bake sale but I don’t want to have to make all those 8×8 batches. Could I double this recipe in a 13×9 pan and add some cooking time?
In answer to your question, I used a silicone, non-stick pan. Do you think this would have effected he result?
Yes, definitely. Silicone won’t conduct heat the same way as metal (which is what I always use). Next time try a quality metal baking pan and let me know how it goes 🙂
Ok so they are finally finished one hour and 20 minutes later. They turned out OK but because they had to bake for so long the top is really hard. The inside is really nice and gooey almost perfect but the flavor is lacking. I have been baking for years and I should have known not to use unsweetened chocolate. Next time I will use semi sweet chocolate for the entire recipe instead of just half of it and I will omit the foil in the baking pan because I really think that is what hindered it from baking quicker. i’m going to use my leftover semi sweet chocolate chips and make a nice ganache and drizzle it on top so that they have more of a sweetness to them instead of being so bitter.
I didn’t change a thing about the recipe and they are currently in the oven going on 1 hour now. When I insert a toothpick in the center it still comes out pretty gooey. I’m using an 8×8 baking pan also. Hopefully when they are finally done they will be worth it. I think next time I will use a larger pan.
Unfortunately I made these brownies this afternoon and they just ended up being a waste of ingredients. Although the batter (and par-cooked) brownie mix tasted out of this world good, the brownies simply did not cook. My oven runs on temperature, if not hot, but I left them in for 45 minutes because I was concerned they seemed too gooey. I then left the brownies in the tin to cool completely (1.5 hours) but even after all this the center was literally batter (as I said, delicious, but only edible via a spoon) I then tried to savour it by putting hem back in the oven for a further half our – edges were black but center was just hot batter. So disappointed. Will stick to my old recipe for now (although again, the taste of your batter is perfect.
So sorry to hear that, Teigan! As you can see by the 100+ comments, most people love this recipe. However, there have been a handful that have experienced a similar problem as you did. I’ve made this recipe over 15 times since publishing it and have never been able to replicate that problem so it’s a bit of a mystery to me. However, I suspect it has something to do with the baking pan used and the oven itself. What kind of pan did you use?
Hello. Please help! The crispy top of my brownie’s has lifted off! Can I stop this from happening?
Thanks, Sophie
I’m wondering is it ok to make them in a muffin pan – brownie muffins?
I’ve never tried!
Hi Tessa!
I have tried baking these 3 times and failed each time 🙁 every time, i get thick, hard and burnt tops but runny/raw insides. I even used an oven thermometer and that made it worse. I also tried baking in the bottom rack but it still made no difference. could it be because my oven is small, it does not bake evenly? please help me! I really want to nail this.
Hmm how strange, especially that using an oven thermometer made it worse?! What kind of pan are you using? Are you using a standard convention oven?
Could I replace all the chocolate with dark chocolate ?
I’d recommend making the recipe exactly as written, as it took me quite a lot of experimenting to get it just right 🙂
I rarely leave comments but just had to say as a brownie fanatic, these were HANDS DOWN my favorite yet. This recipe is AMAZING!!!
Finally! Someone that has the good sense to include the weight of the ingredients with the recipe instead of the usual cups and sticks nonsense most people post. Thank you Tessa!
hi, is there a video for this recipe? if yes, please add the link.