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.
Hi I was wondering if I could use salted butter, as that’s what I have on hand…and do I need to skip the salt then?
Thx!
Absolutely. It’s up to you on if you omit the salt. Personally I can’t tell the difference between salted and unsalted butter (I default to unsalted as some readers are sensitive to salt), so personally I would leave the salt in – but it’s personal preference.
Third time making this, I love these because of how fudgy they are. The only issue I have is how thick the batter is and it gets a little difficult to put into the baking pan. Other than that, I love this recipe and will continue to use it.
These are the best brownies I have ever had! Usually when I make brownie recipes with chocolate bars they don’t come out with the right texture. These brownies are: easy to make, delicious, have the right texture and my whole family can’t stop at one bite!
I’m so glad you like them, they are my favorite!
I’ll start by saying these are truly delicious! When I read through the recipe and the comments I thought I’d take a shortcut and just melt the butter and add it to the sugar. As a seasoned cook/baker, I knew it would “work”. When I was stirring it together it was a bit grainy and then it hit me. Mix in a double boiler for a reason! Melt the sugar and it will me smoother, not to mention if I melt the sugar first and let it brown just a bit before adding the butter, it’ll have a bit of a caramel taste! How could that possibly hurt? So, I had to make a second batch, this time by the directions! Both batches were great…but the second batch, done by the recipe directions were better. That batch was definitely the family’s pick! Either way, you can’t go wrong. I’ll just say, Know your oven and be careful not to overbake.
This is our 4th time baking and they came out differently from the intial time baking. It is really humid here so not sure if this is causing changes in the ingredients.
I’d maybe get an inexpensive over thermometer – it’s the first thing that comes to mind. Nothing about the recipe has been changed, so there had to be some variable that made a difference. As I live in the desert in Phoenix, AZ, I don’t have experience with baking in extreme humidity.
For unknown reasons, I just have never owned an 8” cake pan. I DOUBLED this recipe for a 9×13 cake pan, and they turned out PERFECT!! These brownies are sooo DELICIOUS!!! I bring treats whenever I work on the weekends, and my coworkers RAVED about how yummy these were!! For much of my life, I’ve struggled with finding delicious recipes that “actually work!” This recipe (like I said, I doubled it) made me look really good to my coworkers!!! “Thank You” for sharing your tried and true Cocoa Brownies recipe. I will be MORE than happy to be an unofficial recipe-tester for you!!! 😁😁😁❤️
So glad you enjoyed them!
The brownies were good I just read the instructions in an angry tone
Delicious recipe. Thank you for sharing. The pics also came out amazing. We would like to add your this delicious brownies to our chocolate Mantra menu. We are a small chocolate shop.
More recipes are most welcome..
Srikanth
I LOVE your brownie recipe with natural cocoa powder.
I have to watch my sugar intake..how can I reduce the amount of sugar in the recipe?
I can use stevia.
thanks
Hi Milli, since I don’t bake with sugar substitutes I’m afraid I don’t know what the best option would be. Whatever you usually have success using, you could try that.
I love these brownies because of their great chocolate flavor and texture. I have made them several times, but can you tell me the purpose of lining the baking dish with parchment paper or aluminum foil? Thanks! Lynn