This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our privacy policy for additional information.
Why You’ll Love My Recipe
The Best Chewy, Fudgey Brownies Recipe has been a staple on my website since 2009, and it even earned a spot in my very first cookbook. That’s how much I stand behind it! Over the years, it’s become one of the most popular recipes I’ve ever shared, and for good reason. These brownies are rich, decadent, and completely irresistible. Once you try them, you’ll see why this is the only brownie recipe you’ll ever need!
If you love those stick-to-your-teeth, chocolate-smile brownies as much as I do, be sure to try my Toffee Brownies, Mint Chocolate Brownies, or Healthy Zucchini Brownie Bites next. They’re just as delicious and always satisfy a chocolate craving!
Reader Review
I love brownies. Period. They’re one of my favorite desserts! The only tough part is finding a good recipe. I have spent countless hours searching for recipes and seeing if they work out. Most of them failed. Too gooey, stuck to the pan, etc. Then, I found THIS recipe, tried it out, and after testing all the others, this one definitely took the cake (pun intended)! I highly recommend this recipe to anyone searching for a perfect brownie!
Karlynn’s Recipe Notes
- Skill Level: This recipe is incredibly easy to make. Since it’s a one-bowl dessert, this is perfect for bakers of all experience levels!
- Total Time: You’ll have The Best Chewy, Fudgey Brownies ready to enjoy in just 40-45 minutes.
- Variations: This is a great base brownie recipe that’s easy to customize! Try adding nuts like almonds, walnuts, or Old Fashioned Candied Pecans, and mix in fun extras like marshmallows or pretzels. You can also top the brownies with chopped cookies after baking! When it’s time to serve, pair your brownies with my Perfect Whipped Cream, a drizzle of Chocolate Sauce, or a scoop of your favorite ice cream.
- Tools For This Recipe: You will need a 9×9 baking pan, a medium-sized pot, a whisk or hand mixer, a spoon for stirring, and a toothpick to check for doneness.
What You’ll Need for Ingredients
Cocoa Powder: Cocoa powder is what gives these brownies their deep chocolate flavor – without it, they wouldn’t be brownies! Karlynn’s Tip: You can use either natural or Dutch-processed cocoa here. This recipe doesn’t rely on chemical leaveners for rise, so the difference in acidity between the two won’t affect the texture. That means you can choose based on taste: natural cocoa has a sharper, more intense chocolate flavor, while Dutch-processed cocoa is smoother and richer!
Chocolate Chips: Brownie lovers usually fall into two camps: you either want them light and cakey, or thick, chewy, and ultra-decadent. If you’re in the second group, chocolate chips are a must! They melt into the batter as it bakes, creating pockets of gooey chocolate that make every bite even better!
All-Purpose Flour: Flour gives the brownies structure, but the key to fudgy brownies is using less of it! This recipe only uses ¾ cup, which keeps the texture dense and chewy rather than dry or cakey. Combined with salted butter, you get a perfectly soft, chewy bite. Karlynn’s Tip: If you see a brownie recipe that uses oil, skip it! Butter adds much more richness, and oil-based brownies just don’t compare (unless you’re camping and using a boxed mix!).
Eggs: Eggs help bind the batter together, giving these brownies their signature fudgy texture with just the right amount of chew.
Sugar: White sugar sweetens the brownies and helps create that classic shiny, crackly top. When combined with vanilla extract, it really enhances the overall chocolate flavor! Karlynn’s Tip: For a fun twist, add a pinch of cinnamon, espresso powder, or a hint of nutmeg to bring out even more depth in these brownies.
How To Make The Best Chewy, Fudgey Brownies
This is a quick overview of the recipe. The full list of ingredients & complete step-by-step instructions are in the recipe card below.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Line a 9×9 pan with parchment paper or grease it well with butter.
- Melt the butter in a pot. Stir in the sugar, then the cocoa.
- Add in your eggs, then stir in the vanilla extract.
- Mix in the chocolate chips.
- Add the flour to the mixture and barely stir it in.
- Bake for 30-40 minutes, until the brownies pull slightly away from the edges.
- Cool the brownies, and enjoy!
Karlynn’s Tips and Tricks for the Perfect Chewy, Fudgey Brownies
- Don’t Overmix the Batter: Once you add the flour, go easy! It’s so tempting to keep stirring the batter, but that’s exactly what you want to avoid here. Overmixing your batter will make your brownies cakey instead of rich and fudgy. Mix until just combined, and follow the recipe’s directions carefully for the best texture.
- Skip the Leavening Agents: You don’t need baking powder or baking soda here – trust me! Classic brownies are meant to be dense, thick, and chocolatey. Adding leavening agents (like baking soda or powder) will make them rise and turn them into something more like an airy chocolate cake.
- Slightly Underbake for the Best Texture: The secret to perfect brownies? Pull them out just before they look fully done. A toothpick should come out mostly clean, with a little bit of moist batter on it. Baked goods are safe to eat once they reach 165°F in the center, but they don’t fully firm up until around 200-210°F. That gives you some room to work with! You want these brownies chewy and fudgy, not raw or overbaked. Remember: the brownies will continue to cook as they cool down!
Storage Instructions
The Best Chewy, Fudgey Brownies store beautifully – but don’t be surprised if they disappear before you know it!
Refrigerator: Let the brownies cool completely, then store them in an airtight container. They’ll stay fresh and delicious for 3-5 days at room temperature or in the fridge.
Freezer: These brownies freeze very well! Wrap them tightly in plastic wrap and place them in a freezer-safe bag or container. Freeze for up to 3 months, following USDA food safety guidelines. When you’re ready to enjoy them again, thaw at room temperature for the same soft, fudgy texture!
More Delicious Brownie Recipes
Why make just one type of brownie when there are so many more to enjoy? Be sure to give these reader-favorite Brownie Recipes a try next:
- These gorgeous Easter Brownies are topped with colored coconut and mini eggs for a festive dessert the whole family will love!
- If you have ripe bananas on hand, skip the banana bread and try these Banana Brownies instead! Fair warning – they might become your new weekly go-to.
- These Hot Chocolate Marshmallow Brownies take the classic drink and turn it into one of the most decadent, irresistible brownie recipes you’ll ever make!
And just like that, you’ve got a pan of The Best Chewy, Fudgey Brownies that are seriously hard to resist! And the best part? Everything comes together in one bowl!
Cut your brownies into squares, sneak a corner piece (you know you want to), and don’t forget to let me know how they turned out in the comments below. You know I always love hearing about your kitchen adventures!
Happy Baking!
Karlynn
The Best Fudgey Brownies
Video
Ingredients
- ¾ cup salted butter
- 1 ½ cups white sugar
- ¾ cup cocoa
- 3 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ⅔ cup chocolate chips , this makes them extra fudgy, omit if desired
- ¾ cup all-purpose flour
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350°F.Line a 9×9 pan with parchment paper and set aside.
- On the stove over medium heat, melt the butter in a medium pot. Remove from the heat and stir in the white sugar, stirring to dissolve the sugar as much as you can.
- Once that is combined, mix in your cocoa until thoroughly combined into the mixture.
- Beat in the eggs until fully incorporated, then add in the vanilla.
- If you are using chocolate chips to make these extra fudgy, mix them into the batter now.
- Add in your flour and barely stir it in. This will prevent the brownies from being too cakey. You want to just mix the flour into the batter.
- Bake for 30-40 minutes, until the brownies pull away from the edges slightly. A toothpick inserted should come out fairly clean, with no raw batter on the stick. A few crumbs sticking to the toothpick means they are baked and fudgy inside.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Drew says
I took these out at 20 minutes and they were dry as hell. None of these reviews can possibly be true.
Jaclyn Boyd says
how do these rise with no baking powder or soda..? what type of cocoa powder Dutch or natural? can we add a cheesecake and jam swirl? can we add espresso powder?
Barabara says
I followed this recipe, adding almonds & chocolate chips. The brownies were the best I’ve ever tasted. The texture was soft & gooey in the middle, crunchy on top, chocalately.
Thank you!
Barabara J Hamilton says
I followed this recipe, adding almonds & chocolate chips. The brownies were the best I’ve ever tasted. The texture was soft & gooey in the middle, crunchy on top, chocalately.
Thank you!
Linda says
They sound delicious. I’m going to the brownies sound delicious. I’m going to make them tomorrow. Please tell me do I need to refrigerate the same day after baking or can I wait a few days? Happy Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Olivia Knight says
I love brownies. Period. They’re one of my favorite desserts! The only tough part is finding a good recipe. I have spent countless hours searching for recipes and seeing if they work out. Most of them failed. To gooey, stuck to the pan, etc. Then, I found THIS recipe, tried it out, and after testing all the others, this one definitely took the cake! (pun intended.) I highly recommend this recipe to anyone searching for a perfect brownie!
Mia says
Hello! I’ve never left a comment on a recipe before but oh my gosh, they were seriously the best brownies ever. Literally the perfect brownie for me! Since I’m in the UK, I converted the recipe using chat gpt and it came out perfect!!! My mom and my boyfriend both agree too that this is the best brownie they’ve tried and even asked me to make it again and I definitely will 🙂 Thank you so much for sharing your recipe, im so thankful i tried it.
Maxine says
I have not tried them yet, I am looking forward to making them. Thank you
Irene Gibson says
Rather than pass a comment may I ask a question please? Would it be possible for anyone to give me a breakdown of ingredients in either grams or ounces? I believe this great website is based in USA (the all purpose flour being one of the signs ) but I’m sure that here in the UK our ‘cup’ measuring utensils hold a different quantity of whichever ingredient. Fairly recently I tried making a recipe, the chocolate banana bread. It was ‘ok’ but not the success I’d hoped for & I only blame myself…..I’d tried to convert the ‘cup’ measurements from info on the internet but clearly not precisely enough. It was ‘edible’ & the flavour was basically good but it clearly wasn’t ‘right’. My daughter-in-law hit the nail on the head by saying it was ‘heavy’. Before anyone even thinks otherwise, we have a fantastic relationship….she loves my chocolate muffins & cheese scones (my favourite things to bake) as well as my standard banana bread so her appraisal was honest, not nasty in any way.
Mia says
Hiii! I know this is a late comment, but if it can still hopefully be useful to you anybody in the UK or anyone using metrics, i can help! I made this, and converted the recipe using chat gpt. The recipe conversion –
Room temp butter → 170 g
Granulated sugar → 300 g
white sugar = 200 g.
cocoa powder → 75 g
(I used large) room temp 3 eggs → 150 g
Milk/dark chocolate chips → 115 g
Plain flour → 95 g
I baked them for 35 minutes at 18p degrees celcius 🙂
Mia says
Oh apologies, there’s no extra white sugar, it’s just 300 grams of granulated sugar, It must have been a typo!
Kenzi says
hmm these came out dense and crumbly rather than chewy & fudgy.. i did reduce to just 1 cup of sugar since 1.5 seemed like a lot – but i didn’t think modifying the sweetness would impact the texture. we did also only bake for almost 30 minutes and thought maybe we should’ve stuck to 30 minutes? or maybe we overmixed the batter? idk! maybe a combination of all those things, but we’ll try again and see if it was just user error
to anyone making these brownies, please be mindful of those steps i made! hopefully this helps.
Kenzi says
sorry, i meant that we baked it for almost 35** minutes
Jeanne Church says
Best chocolatey, chewy, brownies ever!
HS says
I made these brownies and the crowd comment was best they ever had. The recipe is wonderful as is and I will make this a repeat recipe for sure.
If I wanted a little more crumb, what change would need to be made?
Anna says
I’ve been searching for a homemade brownie recipe that I actually like! I’m a sucker for a box mix brownie (something nostalgic and satisfying about the texture). These are richer and more decadent in taste, and are almost as chewy!
Shannon says
I’ve made these several times and me and my family love them! So yum!
Sharon says
Used 9×9 pan and it’s too big
Also trying not to mix the flour too much how is that a thing surely you have to mix it all in
Nico says
These are some of the best brownies I’ve ever had in my life! The texture and flavor is absolutely decadent, and they whipped up super duper fast. I’ll be making these again for sure.
Karlynn Johnston says
I am so glad that you enjoyed them, thanks for letting us know!
Josh says
These have been our only brownie recipe since the Shutdown. Love the flavor, texture, everything about them. Now, these years later, we have to start viewing recipes through a diabetic lens. General googling shows “look for recipes built on almond flour,” but after finding perfection, how can I leave this recipe behind?
Has anyone successfully substituted almond (or other) flour instead of the all purpose wheat variety? Or do I just need to make them while tinkering with the recipe?
Dolores says
This is the best and easiest brownie recipe I have ever made! Used 8×8 pan and baked about 5 minutes longer.
erika says
sorry it didn’t work out for me
Kim says
Heavenly delicious! I used a 8×8 and baked for 50 minutes. Woweee they came out crisp, chewy n fudgy just like you said and shown in your photos. My hubby and I love these brownies, but next time imma double up or make two pans, one for him and one for me but with walnuts. 🙂 Thank you for sharing such a simple and absolutely yummy brownie recipe!
Sharon Higgins says
What type/brand of Cocoa did you use?
Meg says
Delicious recipe! Baked mine for 35 minutes and came out perfectly
Kim solomon says
can you substitute dark chocolate in place of semi sweet
L says
Tried and true! Ive been using this recipe for a year and they’re perfect every time! With Thanksgiving being this week, I had some leftover pumpkin cheesecake batter… So, I swirled it into this one… voila. Pumpkin Cheesecake Swirled Brownies
Chanel Johnson says
Possibly the best brownie recipe I have ever tried I am bookmarking it saving it doing whatever to make sure I don’t lose this it’s that good
Christine says
I love the brownies my husband isn’t a brownie lover but he said these where really good and he would eat them again.
Alice C says
I’ve been making this recipe for several years now and it’s always delicious! It’s so easy to make with just 1 bowl. I only have an 8×8 glass dish and my oven needs 45 minutes to finish baking this, but it turns out perfect every time… lightly crispy top, chewy edges, and fudgy everywhere else! 🙂 When the brownies are set enough, I lift them on the parchment to let them cool on a cooling rack before cutting.
Camelot says
I’ve tried countless brownie recipes as well as restaurants and bakeries. And these are by far the BEST ever. Absolutely perfect balance of pure goodness. Brownies are one of my favorite desserts. But if not done right it’s a big let down, and just not worth the calories.Again, your recipe and tips create the perfect fudgey,chocolately ,crakely top confection. I followed your recipe measurements exactly and did not change a thing. 👍