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
The nutrition facts provided are calculated using a third-party tool and are estimates only. Actual nutritional content may vary based on the ingredients and brands you use, as well as portion sizes. For accurate results, please consult a registered dietitian or nutritionist.
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.
Meet Christi, Love From The Oven
I’m Christi I love sharing easy & delicious recipes that your family & friends will love. I’m a mom, baker, cookbook author and lover of sprinkles.
This recipe turned out exactly like the “two bite brownies” I love from the store! Absolutely perfect!
It turned out really well! I even multiplied the recipe by 1.5 because I had an 8×12 pan. I’ll put the way I did it down below in case anyone wants to do the same:
– 15 tablespoons butter (I have salted, so I just went lighter on the salt later)
– 1 3/4 cups+ 2 tablespoons sugar
– 1 1/3 cups cocoa powder.
Now here, instead of mixing it all in a double-boiler in a glass bowl, I just melted the butter on the stove by itself. I sifted the cocoa powder and sugar after measuring to get out any lumps, and combined them in a large bowl. Then, I made a divot in the middle of the sifted ingredients in the bowl and poured in the butter. Stir to combine.
Because it isn’t in a double-boiler, you don’t need to wait as long for it to cool down. If you still want to wait a moment, this is a good time to get the flour and other dry ingredients together on the side.
– 3/4 cup flour
– 1.5 teaspoons baking powder
– 1/2 teaspoon salt (or 3/4 if you used unsalted butter)
Set aside. To the cocoa powder mix add:
– 3 large eggs, stirring well after each addition.
– 1.5 teaspoons vanilla extract
Stir in. At this point, my mix was getting very thick, so I switched from using a whisk to using a spatula to fold in the flour mixture. Just make sure it’s well combined. I didn’t end up counting how many stokes it took, sorry.
As for the measurements of chocolate chips, nuts, or other add-ins: the measurement is in your heart.
Then bake at the same temperature (325F) for 40-45 minutes.
Exactly 40, No more no less. I couldn’t even stir my mixture because it was too dry. This is not a very good recipe. If this is supposed to be a low-carb/keto recipe then it should be using low cab replacement sugar.
I have no idea why anyone would think any recipe on this site was low carb or keto, they certainly are not represented as such in any way, shape or form. This recipe certainly does not give any indication of that.
And yes, it’s very a very dry mixture, as you can see in the video. Now if you do not measure your flour correctly and put too much in, then that will make them even dryer. But the end result is amazing! Granted I can’t speak to the result if one uses substitutes to make it low carb/keto – I doubt it would turn out well. And it’s best to judge a recipe by it’s final result, not during the stage in which it’s not meant to be consumed. 🙂
Much to dry and very difficult to stir. Not nearly sweet enough for my family. I couldn’t find any toothpicks at my sons house so I didn’t know how to test if it was done. Usually it’s very brown on the edges when done. Thank you for submitting your recipe.
Jane I’m so confused, in this comment the brownies aren’t sweet enough, but in your other comment you’re talking about using a sugar replacement option. If that’s what you did, I have no idea how sweet they would turn out. As mentioned in the post these brownies are not overly sweet – these are for true chocolate lovers who want to taste the chocolate, not just the sugar. Also, a knife works well to check for doneness, there’s no hard fast rule about using toothpicks. I’m not sure that you can judge how done this recipe is by how brown the edges are, as they are brown from the get go.
First off, I definitely wouldn’t call this recipe easy 😅 You have to do a double-boiler method to melt the butter with sugar/cocoa powder, which took a long time for me since the only way I could set it up was kinda janky.
That being said! Easily the best brownies I’ve ever made. Complex flavor and chewy edges, gooey inside, amazing. Excited to share them with friends.
Exactly 40 strokes, no more no less lol
About to give these a try!! Is it possible to freeze the brownies after?
Excellent recipe! I only had Dutch process cocoa powder and missed the bit that says it’s better not to use it. But the brownies turned out so dark and I loved them, so it worked out well for me. I love the consistency, soft and chewy. I will definitely be making these again!
Made exactly as written, and they’re the perfect brownie. Intensely chocolatey, fudgy, and rich, and not overly sweet!!! VERY simple to make, as well. Wrote down on a card to stick in the recipe box. Thanks so much!
Not enough sugar. Needs two cups otherwise it’s bitter.
Revise as follows:
2 cups of sugar
11 tablespoons of butter
You can certainly add more sugar, but I personally do not recommend it. Of course if you are a milk chocolate fan, then you might like your chocolate over the top sweet. As a dark chocolate fan, my goal is to taste more chocolate than sugar. 🙂