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!

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.

More Brownie Recipes:

• Best Chewy Brownies – my most popular recipe!
• Best Easy Brownies
• Coconut Oil Brownies
• Copycat Cosmic Brownies
• Malted Brown Butter Brownies