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.
Isha says
Hi,
Can I use regular salted butter and skip the extra salt?
Christi Johnstone says
Absolutely.
Soma Sutradhar says
Please can you specify the cup size as in gms
Christi Johnstone says
Soma, I don’t measure in grams. I’d suggest one of the great online converter calculators. This one looks good: https://www.goodtoknow.co.uk/food/cups-to-grams-converter-87833
Stéfano says
Love this recipe. Can I add instant coffee powder substituting maybe the vanilla? And also I can never get the crunchy crust. Is it my oven? (but still haven’t tried this recipe).I don’t have broil.
Christi Johnstone says
Stefano, you can absolutely add some instant coffee powder. No broiling brownies! I try to avoid a crunchy anything with brownies, as I far prefer them soft and chewy, but you can always add extra baking time if that’s what you are looking for. Enjoy!
Erica says
Would this be the same amount of ingredients and cook time for a 9 by 13 pan?
Christi Johnstone says
No, it would not be as the 9×13 pan holds quite a bit more volume. You would need not quite double the recipe for a 13×9 pan, though I have not tested it in order to give you an accurate bake time or temp. If you were to make this recipe and use a 9×13 pan, I’d expect that you’d end up with a much thinner brownie and need to shorten the bake time.
Lynda says
These brownies were delicious! Very moist and rich. Super yummy! Thank you for this recipe!
Melody says
I made these brownies the first time on April 25, 2020, according to the recipe exactly and they came out amazing and fantastic. I used Sam’s Club brand of unsalted sweet butter and baked them in the oven in a glass pyrex dish for 30 minutes. Today I made these brownies and used Darigold butter (which personally I don’t like as the butter pops and cracks in the micro when melting even at 20 seconds) and I used my George Foreman Evolve Grill at 325 for 20 minutes. They still tasted great but were a little bit drier and not as gooey. I honestly think it is the butter I used. I will make again using a better butter.
Val says
We made these brownies today! We absolutely love them! One of our favorite recipes! Thank you 😃
Christi Johnstone says
Val, so glad you enjoyed them! We do as well. 🙂
Shainna says
Amazing <3
Richard says
I’ve made dozens of brownie recipes over the year and this is at the top of the list. I plan on experimenting with reducing the sugar when I make it in the future but as it stands this is excellent.
Katrina says
Best Brownies Ever! They were a huge hit at our dinner party.
Genet Forde says
April 26/2020 @6:58pm E time
As soon as I search how to do dessert. I followed your website I have all my gradients you Mation and I did it for 40 minutes and I has the most delicious brownie I ever had thank you so very much for the directions great job.
Thank you so much.