Rich, chocolatey and delicious, this recipe for easy brownies made with cocoa powder is one that you’ll want to save and make, over and over. Made with simple ingredients, and barely more work than making brownies from a mix, this is my go to brownie recipe.
Reasons To Make These Brownies:
- If you’ve never made brownies made from scratch, you’ll be surprised how EASY these are to make.
- You don’t need to chop and melt chocolate to make these, their rich, chocolate flavor comes from cocoa powder.
- When it comes to texture and flavor, these brownies can’t be beat.
- Readers comment time and time again that these are the best brownies they’ve ever made.
- Your family will be thrilled when you pull these out for dessert.
Cocoa Powder Brownies
When it comes to easy desserts, brownies are kind of the best. I love how quickly they come together, and they are usually what I make when I need a great dessert, but don’t have a lot of time or attention to focus on making that dessert. Every time I share these brownies with someone, they want the recipe.
These easy brownies made with cocoa powder have a perfect brownie texture, at least in my book. You get that awesome, chewy, sink your teeth into them experience with these, as well as that great shiny, ever so slightly crusty top.
While many homemade brownie recipes require you to melt chocolate, these do not. Don’t get me wrong, there are some phenomenal recipes out that begin with chopping up chocolate, I just never find myself making them. And when you taste these brownies made with cocoa powder, you’ll probably understand why I don’t feel the need to get out that bar of baking chocolate.
Take a look how simple these ingredients are. Don’t make brownies from a mix, make these. You’ll thank me.
Dark Cocoa Powder Vs Regular Cocoa Powder
While I’m a big fan of dark cocoa powder, in this recipe I stick with regular cocoa powder. Like all brownies, these are sweet – but not overly sweet. They actually taste like dark chocolate in my opinion, so using dark cocoa powder might push them a bit too far to the bittersweet side.
Now if you love a super dark chocolate and want a bittersweet brownie, by all means, grab that dark cocoa powder and take these brownies made with cocoa powder to the deep, dark chocolate side.
Speaking of cocoa powder, I prefer to go with a natural cocoa powder on these, not Dutch process. Most grocery story cocoa powders such as Hershey’s, Ghirardelli, and Scharffen Berger are natural cocoa powders. Because it’s not an overly sweet brownie recipe, I like to add mini semi-sweet chocolate chips for those sweeter pops of chocolate in each bite.
Brownie Mix Ins
Mix it up, add some mix ins! While I didn’t add them due to allergies in my family, these would be amazing with walnuts mixed in. Pecans or even almonds would also be a great addition. Chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, peanut butter chips – any kind of chips will be a great addition. You can even go the fruit route and add some dried blueberries or raspberries.
Tips & Advice
Travel: These brownies have a nice substance to them, and I find that they travel well – so if you need a dessert to take to gathering or get together, these brownies made with cocoa powder are a great choice.
Storage: Wrap them tightly, and these will store for up to five days at room temperature. That said, they are always the best, when they are the freshest.
Freezing: While we never have “leftover” brownies in this house, these brownies to do freeze well. I recommend cutting them, and wrapping individual brownies in to layers of plastic wrap. Then place them in a Ziploc style bag. To thaw, remove from freezer and let come to room temperature.
If you love this recipe, make sure to try my Brownie Bites and Brownie Cookies!
Brownies Made With Cocoa Powder
Brownies Made With Cocoa Powder
Ingredients
- 10 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 1/4 cups sugar
- 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips optional
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts optional
Instructions
- Position your oven rack in the lower third of your oven.
- Preheat oven to 325ºF
- Line a 8-inch square pan with parchment or alumni paper. Spray lightly with non-stick cooking spray.
- Combine butter, sugar, cocoa powder and salt in a large bowl, preferably glass, and place bowl over a pan of water that is just barely simmering. Stir occasionally until butter is melted and mixture is combined.
- Remove from heat and allow to cool for 5-10 minutes. You do not want the mixture too hot when you add the eggs.
- After mixture has cooled slightly, add vanilla and mix well.
- Add eggs, one at a time, and beat vigorously until very well mixed.
- In a separate bowl combine flour and baking powder, and stir to combine.
- Add flour mixture to batter, and mix very well to combine. While we are often told not to over mix brownies, this batter needs to be stirred vigorously. Stirring about 40 strokes with a spoon is a good guide.
- If adding chocolate chips and or nuts, fold them into the batter.
- Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a tester comes out with some moist crumbs attached. Allow to cool on a wire rack.
- Serve and enjoy. If not eating the same day, wrap or cover tightly.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Disclaimer
Nutrition information is estimated as a courtesy. If using for medical purposes, please verify information using your own nutritional calculator. Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
I hope your family enjoys these delicious cocoa powder brownies as much as my family does. This really is one of those that you’ll want to save and make time and time again.
If you want to try a great brownie recipe that is made with baking chocolate, the recipe I use in my brownie truffle fries is the one I’d recommend. Just skip making them into truffle fries in the end.
And if you just want to stick to a box brownie mix, no judgement! But make sure to check out my tips for doctoring a box brownie mix.
Andes Mint Brownies might be my favorite way to doctor a brownie mix!
And if you just need a brownie, stat, like in five minutes from now, check out my microwave brownie for one.
Originally published January 2018.
Simona says
I love this recipe. We made it today, on Xmas day and it was a BIG SUCCESS. I used Droste chocolate, a very fine chocolate powder from Netherlands. The brownies were DIVINE 😀
Bakersfirst says
This was my first time making a brownie and I looked all over for an easy and tasty recipe. Then I came across this website and let me tell you it was DELICIOUS. My mother was amazed and she looked at me and said if I bought them from a store. Your recipe is absolutely wonderful
Jimmy says
I just softened the butter in the microwave instead of using a double boiler. It made mixing in the sugar and cocoa powder a bit difficult, but it was easy once the eggs went in. I used just a little bit of extra salt because I like salty brownies. I baked them in a dark 8.3 inch pan, and it took about 25 minutes. The brownies came out of the pan easily after cooling, and they are very moist and incredibly tasty. This is going to be my go to brownie recipe.
Anne says
Wow. Just wow. These turned out so well and very easy.
Christi says
Anne, so glad you enjoyed these easy brownies!
Truba says
THESE ARE SO GOOD! my brother is very picky with his food, and he LOVES these!
b1blind says
ok. I personally do not like chocolate but i am trying these for the first time for my husband. I will let you know what he thinks. I am kind of new to the baking world so i love the instruction. They are very easy to follow.
TINA SMITH says
Would you double the recipe for a 13×9 pan?
Christi Johnstone says
Hi Tina, I haven’t made this one in a 13×9 pan, so I can’t speak as to how the results would turn out. Honestly with these I think I’d be more inclined for two 8×8 pans than a 13×9, based on how dense the batter/brownies are, in order to make sure they bake adequately.
Samantha says
Made these brownies last night and my husband and I are obsessed with them! All he said was “save that recipe” and I knew we found our favorite brownies. Thanks for the recipe!
Christi says
You are welcome, glad you enjoy this easy brownie recipe!
Barbara Deneris says
Hi, my son said this tasted more like dark chocolate. How can I lighten/sweeten it a little? And when you take it out of the oven, do you just lift the brownies out with the parchment paper and put on the cooling rack or just put the whole pan on the cooling rack?
Thanks
Christi says
Barbara, personally I’m a huge dark chocolate fan and kind of despise milk chocolate, so I always tend to go darker with chocolate. What cocoa did you use? That can be a factor. If you would like them sweeter, I’d add another 1/4 to 1/2 cup of sugar. You place the pan on the cooling rack, just as you would with any brownies. Once cool you can pull them out of the pan, but they need to cool completely first to stay together.
Ana says
Hi from Portugal!
I baked your brownie recipe for a 1rst grade party (I doubled it , used a larger square pan and also hazelnut flower instead of chopped walnuts) and it was a huge success with the kids!
So huge, it disappeared from the sweets’ table before I was able to try them! I will bake them for our family one of these rainy Sundays. Thank you for the recipe 🙂
Greg says
I loveeee this recipe. I had extra cocoa powder from making red velvet cupcakes so I needed to use it. Thank you so much. They came out so creamy and moist and delicious.
willette martin says
They came out good ,and moist
Christi says
So glad you enjoyed these easy brownies!
Cmchelle says
My daughter made this recipe today, she substituted the sugar for turbinado, unsalted butter for salted, and we had slightly less than 1/2 cup of all purpose flour so we used self rising to make up the difference and omitted the salt and baking powder. We noticed while melting the sugar, butter, and cocoa powder over the water that the sugar granules in the mixture did not break down and melt so weren’t sure how the finished product would turn out. We used a pam greased dark metal cake pan and baked the brownies at 325 for 21 minutes. They still looked pretty moist when we took them out but after cooling for about ten minutes they hardened up. We didn’t add any choc chips or nuts, but will try that next time. The brownies turned out moist and were absolutely delicious. We will definitely be making these again. Maybe even try to make a low carb version with almond flour and a granulated sugar substitute! Thanks for the recipe.
Christi says
So glad you guys enjoyed them!