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.
Michelle says
Omg! I just want to thank you for giving us this recipe. I’ve tried to make brownies from so many so-claimed best recipes and they all turned into flops because they came out as chocolate cake. It was perfect with a super fudgey center.
Suanett says
OMG I just made them and they are more than delicious, thank you for the recipe.
Dian Yuanti says
These brownies are sooooo delicious!! This is my first brownies without dcc and fudgy texture was too good.. I think your brownies recipe will became my favourite brownies.. Thank you!!
Ana Cristina says
Perfect recipe!! Brownies were amazing!!!! Can I double the recipe and make it in a 9×13 in pan??
Christi says
Hi Ana, I haven’t tried (I need to!) so I can’t give you a bake time/temp adjustment I’m afraid. If you do, can you report back?
Beth says
Great brownies! I just tried making 1.5x the recipe and baking in a glass 9×13 pan. It took 40 minutes and came out beautifully!
Christi Johnstone says
So glad they worked for you, Beth!
Niamh Madden says
Thank you so much for this recipe! I had bought a big bag of cacao powder and wasn’t sure how to use it up. My husband got a craving for something cake-like and I instantly thought of brownies. This recipe was so easy to do and Omg the results!! Gooey, thick, dark, sumptuous choccie brownies that really hit the spot. Can’t wait to share them around with family and friends!
Christi says
Niamh, so glad you guys liked them! This is probably one of my personal favorites on the site, I’m a sucker for a good brownie!
Betty A Madaus says
I am a dibetic, need to know nutrition ingredients, Carbs for sur
Christi says
Hi Betty, I’d recommend an online nutrition calculator, you should be able to plug the recipe in and get the info you need!
Amanda Hedges says
So I took a few creative liberties, some out of necessity and some just for fun. I ran out of white sugar, so did a mix of white and brown sugars in about 50:50 ratio. I wanted some extra warmth so I added about 2 Tbsp dark molasses with the vanilla extract. And finally, I dumped the rest of a bag aka about 1c mini choco chips in. Good gracious these turned out phenomenally. Very please and will be making again!
CD says
Is there some special reason you can’t just use melted butter versus a double boiling process?
Christi says
CD, funny you ask! I’ve been playing with this recipe to simplify it as much as possible. I will be posting a new version this week, where you do just use melted butter. There are a few slight tweaks in how it all comes together, but I’m thrilled with the results and excited to share them. 🙂
Sara says
I made this with great results. I made a few changes though, but it still turned out great. I used 2/3 cup butter because it was easier to measure and is only 2/3 tbsp too much. I used medium eggs, because that’s what’s available now. I mixed all the dry ingredients together in one bowl (except the salt). I made sure any lumps were broken up. In another bowl, I melted the butter and salt in the microwave. Since it was cool still, I added the eggs and vanilla and mixed that up. Then added the wet to the dry and mixed with a spoon it only until the dry was mixed in. I used an old 9×9 square non-stick pan, and “greased” the pan with corn oil. I dumped the batter into the pan, leveled it a bit, and shoved it into the oven on the bottom shelf. My oven was set to NOT use the convection setting (which it uses by default), because it makes my baked goods come out dry. The brownies came out perfect and didn’t stick in my pan.
Christie says
I am making these brownies rn but the batter is really thick. Is it supposed to me like that?
Christi says
Christie, yes! It’s usually a bit of work to spread it to cover the bottom of the pan. But that gives you that great, fudgey texture after baking. 🙂
SaraAnn says
Hello. Can you link or lead me/us to where your new, non-double boiler recipe is located on your site please? Thank you in advance if you respond.
Isaac says
For New Year’s Day I wanted chocolate and came across this easy recipe… and wow! They are amazing! Th only thing I did differently was I used salted butter and didn’t add any extra… I also chopped up kiss chocolate added those in… Along with pecans… cooked a little longer and then left to cool in the oven with the door cracked open… they turned out so good that my partner who dose not like chocolate ate five pieces… Thanks for super easy recipe!