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.
Anonymous says
Made them this morning. Such an easy recipe. Where has it been ll my life? My husband thinks they’re the best I’ve made yet. Definitely moist and chocolatey. I added walnuts and chocolate chips. Wonderful!
Kaelyn Lew jen tai says
I love that it was really easy and amazing
Brenda says
I want to make these but I have a question. Only half cup of flour? No judgement, legit question. Thank you!
Christi Johnstone says
Yep, just like the recipe says! 🙂
Anonymous says
You might want to give a metric version as well. All you need is for the flour to be packed down and there’s gonna be dry complaints. Cups, as opposed to metrics, leaves just too much room for error. Otherwise the mixture looks good,but I know to scoop and level and not to pack down my flour.
Emily says
Ok I made them again following the recipe exactly and it’s perfect. Actually I used salted butter because I am sort of a salt addict and they were amazing. Thank you!!
Christi Johnstone says
So there is a legendary story my husband and daughters tell, every time I make brownies, about the time I supposedly made the brownies too salty. I literally cannot recall any such occasion, because too salty and brownies just is NOT a thing. I love a sprinkling of Maldon flake salt on top of these! Salty sweet is the best!
Jessica says
I was super sketched out by the process because the batter was on the dryer side and definitely not like your average brownie mix out of the box (so do not expect it to be runny). But it was great in the end! I’ll add walnuts next time since I didn’t have any this go around.
Christi Johnstone says
Glad you enjoyed them. Definitely want to judge by the final result, not the pre-baked one 🙂
Emily says
I’ve been looking for a go to brownie recipe for a while and I think this is it. I need to have my oven thermometer checked because it took me about 50 minutes to get these cooked. I also used Diamond kosher salt and I think I’d use a full teaspoon next time but these are the exact texture I like and I loved how easy they were to make. They were even better the next day in my opinion. Thank you!
Shannon says
Dry dry dry. And i added an extra “large” egg and extra 2 tbs butter
Christi Johnstone says
It’s a shame you didn’t get to enjoy the recipe as written. While the batter is dry, the results are anything but! 🙂 Maybe next time!
Monica Roberts says
Only 1/2 cp of flour?
Ty!
Ruby Miller says
I just made these brownies for the first time. My oven hasn’t been working for ages, but I just got an air fryer oven. I know I had to reduce the time, and the temp, to insure that they didn’t burn. I set it for 300 degrees, and they baked for 24 minutes. They were perfect. I was concerned, because I didn’t have a glass bowl to put over the boiling water, so I just heated the butter, sugar, cocoa mixture in a sauce pan, on very low heat. It looked very grainy. I guess I was expecting it to be more liquid. But, once it cooled, and I added the vanilla and eggs, then the flour/baking powder, it looked just like a regular brownie mixture. They came out wonderfully. Thank you for the recipe.