Brownies are the ultimate chocolate treat. When you’re craving chocolate, there is nothing that solves your craving faster than a dense, fudgy brownie filled with chocolate chips! 

THE INGREDIENTS:

Butter: Butter is very important in this recipe as it allows us to bloom the cocoa powder, which gives off an even richer chocolate flavor. In addition to that, it gives a fudgier texture that an oil-based brownie would struggle to achieve. Unsalted or salted butter works fine in this recipe, just go with your preference! 

Cocoa Powder: When making brownies, it is important to not just have chocolate one way. By combining cocoa powder, melted chocolate, and chocolate chips into this recipe, we ensure a triple burst of chocolate flavor. We recommend unsweetened cocoa powder as the chocolate and sugar in this recipe brings enough sweetness. We do not recommend dark cocoa powder for these brownies because we felt like the strength of dark cocoa powder overwhelmed the melted chocolate and chocolate chip flavor. 

Eggs: Egg yolks are what give that dense, fudgy texture! The texture is why we have 3 yolks in the recipe instead of 2. However, adding too many whole eggs leads to that cakey texture that some like in their brownies and some see as too close to chocolate cake. For this reason, we left that additional egg white out. 

White Sugar: White sugar is a key component in that classic crackle-top that is so important for brownies! We wanted to keep it simple as brown sugar risks adding too much moisture and its signature tang of molasses flavor. In addition to that, white sugar is a tried-and-true for crackle tops and we did not want to sacrifice the crackle top for the value that other kinds of sugar could bring to this brownie recipe. 

Salt: Salt is such a basic ingredient, but adding a pinch of that savory flavor really brings out the chocolate. 

Flour: Flour, another basic ingredient, is important for brownies (and just about every other baked good on the planet)! We recommend using all-purpose flour for this recipe, which is the basic flour that should be available at every grocery store near you. We have not tried this recipe with any other variety of flour and cannot report on how it would affect this recipe. 

Dark Chocolate Chips: Even if you are not a dark chocolate fan, we recommend using melted dark chocolate in this recipe. Due to the sweetness of this dessert overall, opting for a sweeter melting chocolate significantly reduces the chocolate flavor in this recipe. 

Semisweet Chocolate Chips: These chocolate chips, on the other hand, are a mix-in! They are what provide those pockets of gooey chocolate that really bring a lot of value to a brownie. Since these chocolate chips are a mix-in, substitutions will work well here. If you really love dark chocolate, you can replace them with dark chocolate chips. Milk chocolate, white chocolate, or chocolate chunks will all work well for this brownie recipe. Just go with your favorite! 

Walnuts: While the crackle tops do bring texture to the brownie recipe, the real crunch is in the walnuts! Instead of straight chocolate, having some walnuts to break up that flavor really enhances the brownie as it helps to avoid any monotony in this dessert. Since walnuts aren’t sweet, they also provide a slightly savory contrast which helps from making the dessert seem too sweet as well. However, if you are allergic or just plain don’t like nuts, that’s okay! Leave them out and the brownie will still be delicious. The walnuts can be substituted with just about any nut, but we found that replacing the walnuts with pistachios led to slightly moist pistachios in the brownie, which didn’t provide the satisfying crunch you might hope for in a nutty brownie. 

KEY INFORMATION:

Room Temperature Eggs: When the eggs are at room temperature, they incorporate more easily into the brownie batter. In addition to that, room temperature eggs can get more rise when whipped with a mixer than cold eggs. If you forgot to take your eggs out far enough in advance, a quick solution is getting a bowl of hot water and submerging the eggs for just a minute or two. 

The Ribbon Stage: The ingredients for this stage are eggs and granulated sugar. Mixing the eggs and sugar in this way provides a better texture, crackle top, and ensures a more even distribution of the sugar since it becomes so well-incorporated. As mentioned in the recipe, the ribbon stage is characterized by a pale color, not being gritty, and being slightly thick. It is called the “Ribbon” stage because you know you are done when those 3 characteristics are met and when you lift the beaters and move them across the mixture, you temporarily see two “ribbons” before they meld back into the mixture. 

Blooming Cocoa: Blooming cocoa is the very first thing you do in this recipe. First, you melt the butter in a saucepan. You only have to melt the butter, so don’t worry about making any brown butter for this recipe! Next, you add the cocoa and stir until completely incorporated. Our goal is to avoid any lumps of cocoa powder in the brownies. When the cocoa interacts with this hot liquid, it strengthens the flavor of the cocoa powder-just what we want for brownies! 

Crackle Tops: As mentioned earlier, what makes crackle tops is the vigorous combining of eggs and granulated sugar. If you mix them separately in this recipe, you may get little-to-no crackle top, so be careful! 

Order of Addition: We’ve made this brownie many times, and a very important aspect for this recipe is that the order matters. When we added the hot ingredients, then the flour mixture, and finally the egg and sugar mixture, we found the texture to be significantly less fudgy! 

Resting the Brownies: You can cut these brownies straight out of the oven, but they will be a gooey mess! To ensure a cleaner cut that you see on our main photo, it is best to wait at least an hour so the brownies have a chance to cool down and solidify a bit more. 

Successfully melting chocolate: You cannot melt the butter and chocolate chips together. When the chocolate chips interact with fat while melting, they seize up and become clumpy. Instead, for a quick melt, put the chocolate chips in a microwave-safe bowl and microwave for 30 second intervals, switching to 15 second intervals if the chocolate chips are almost melted, but not quite. Then, stir! This takes us between 1 minute and 1.5 minutes to achieve. 

THE HOMEMADE BROWNIE RECIPE: